The winter has arrived with a bang with only farmers operating on exceptionally dry ground managing to hold stock out on grass. While land type sees housing dates vary from county to county, a difficult autumn has forced most farmers to start to eat into winter fodder supplies three to four weeks ahead of schedule.

In parts of the west, farmers on marginal land have seen the winter arrive six weeks early, having been forced to house stock in early September. Many of these farmers have the added challenge of coping with reduced fodder supplies after not managing to secure a later cut of silage.

At a national level, the relatively warm weather has seen good growth rates maintained throughout the autumn but the challenge has been trying to utilise this grass.

While there are various steps that can be taken to try to improve utilisation in difficult conditions, the advice is clearly to remove stock and avoid heavy poaching. It is a hard decision to make, especially where you are leaving good grass covers behind. However, there may be an opportunity to return stock back to grass if conditions improve or during a cold snap.

Alternatively, the option of grazing these swards with store lambs or ewes could be considered. Teagasc figures show the potential to achieve a margin of €25 to €30 from finishing hill lambs on grass, followed by an intensive feeding period.

The target should be to try to get heavy covers grazed out before the end of November – if possible – to ensure good quality swards are available next spring.

Back in the yard, attention needs to focus on addressing what will be a fodder deficit on many farms. The first step is to identify how much fodder you are going to need and measure it against how much you have available. We have a fodder calculator available online at www.farmersjournal.ie/fodder to help you establish this. Taking small steps now could help avoid being forced to take more drastic and potentially costly action next spring.

At this stage of the housing period, the most economical option is to try to reduce demand rather than buying additional forage. In the majority of cases, purchasing silage of unknown quality can be the most expensive route. Increasing the level of concentrate feeding is often a more viable alternative.

Typically, feeding an additional 1kg of concentrate per head per day will reduce silage demand over a 160-day winter period by 0.8t to 1/t per head, depending on the class of animal.

There is always the option of reducing fodder demand by offloading stock at the start of the feeding period. Alternatively, on beef finishing farms, this can involve switching to an ad-lib concentrate diet.

In the case of suckler and dairy herds, condition scoring cows and feeding accordingly can deliver major savings. Restricting silage to well-fleshed cows can save 8-10kg of silage per head per day.

Access to straw is also going to be a major problem for many farms. Andy Doyle estimates that through a combination of reduced plantings and straw remaining unbaled that supply could be down by the equivalent of two million 4x4 round bales. Our Focus this week looks at what steps farmers can take to reduce straw demand. Many of the alternatives work out expensive when compared with the traditional price of straw. But with reports of 8x4x3 square bales now selling for up to €45 delivered, alterative options, where available, are becoming economically viable.

Ultimately, the only piece of prescriptive advice that can be given to farmers is to work out where they stand in relation to fodder supplies early in the winter period. It is then possible to work out the best course of action in terms of minimising costs and impact on farm output.