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As the grazing season enters September, the autumn period is truly under way.
Shorter days and cooler night-time temperatures will start to affect grass growth.
As calves and stores continue to increase in size and weight, grazing demand will quickly exceed grass growth in September.
Grazing days ahead of cattle should be in the region of 25 to 30 days at the start of September.
But to keep animals grazing well into October, you need to be taking steps now that will help build grazing covers.
Outlined are five tips to help stretch grazing rotations into late autumn.
1. Spread fertiliser
Spreading 30 units/acre of nitrogen (N) over the next week will boost grass growth during the first half of September.
Ideally, using a compound NPK product or an N fertiliser with added sulphur will give a greater boost in grass growth.
The earlier N is applied during September, the higher the growth response. Remember to apply any fertiliser before the closing date for chemical N on 15 September.
2. Leave a higher grass residual
During the first half of the grazing season, and indeed right up until September, the advice would be to clean grass covers off as tight as possible.
However, in autumn it is better to leave a slightly higher grazing residual in paddocks.
Graze swards down to a target residual of 6cm before moving cattle on to the next paddock.
The reason for leaving a higher residual means there is still some green leaf in the sward base that will speed up regrowth during September.
As there is no risk of grass heading out in autumn, sward quality will be unaffected.
3. Back-fence grazed areas
To increase grass growth, it is important to rest swards which have been grazed.
However, where cattle cannot be closed out of a paddock, use a back fence to protect areas which have been grazed.
Otherwise, cattle will continue to roam over these areas and nip off any new grass that has started to grow.
If ground conditions begins to deteriorate, grazed areas will become poached, which will limit any further grass growth this autumn.
4. Early scanning and remove barren cows
For spring-calving cows that were running with the bull all summer, there should hopefully be little sign of breeding activity now.
Therefore, it may be a good idea to scan cows in mid- to late-September.
Cows can be accurately scanned from 35 to 40 days post-breeding.
Cows which are not in-calf can then be isolated and if animals are in good body condition, they can be sold after scanning to relieve grazing demand in late September.
5. Finishing cattle
Where cattle will be finished off grass, increasing concentrates will help to reduce grazing demand and increase animal performance.
As protein levels in grass will be sufficient to keep animals growing, rations should be a simple high-energy mix.
Rolled barley will suffice on its own, or mixed with soya hulls to increase dietary fibre.
In late autumn, grass dry matter will be low.
Therefore, it is important to increase concentrate levels to 5kg to 6kg/day, depending on animal type.
This will increase energy intake, as animals will struggle to gain sufficient fat cover from a grass diet in late autumn.
For cattle that are more likely to kill in December, these animals could be housed by mid-September and intensively finished over 70 to 80 days, freeing up grass for other animals.
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