Current Grassland Management
Current Dry Matter Levels (%)
Grange
17%
Moorepark
14%
Oakpark
15%
Grass Growth Predictions
MoSt Grass Growth Predictions for each county for 7 days (from 8th September 2026)
Management notes
Grass growth predictions have returned to relatively normal levels across the country as grass has recovered. It is important to walk the farm and assess growth.
Ensure your livestock allocations of grass, meal and fodder are correct when putting in a grass cover on PastureBase
Fertiliser and slurry actions
- This is the last week to spread chemical fertiliser on farm – application deadline is the 14th of September
- Only spread enough for what you need
- When growth is greater than 35 kg DM/ha/day spreading 25kg N/ha (20 units/acre) will sustain grass growth for ~40 days in addition to the mineralised soil N
- To assess requirements for chemical N
- Know current farm growth rate
- What level of N has been applied in the last 3 weeks? Account for N from organic sources
- Utilise organic nutrients on farm (Closing date Oct 1st for slurry)
- 2,500 gallons of slurry/acre will provide about 15 kg N/ha (12 units/acre)
- Consider spreading 25 kg N/ha chemical fertiliser to provide grass with nitrogen, if required
Rotation length to build farm cover
- Set the farm to a 35 day + rotation
- Continue to build grass by maximising September growth rates
- Why extend rotation?
- Maximises utilisation of fertiliser and slurry applied
- Facilitates more grass in the diet
- Extends the grazing season by building autumn covers
- Reduce demand further by removing surplus animals to ensure grass demand is below current growth rates
Liming
- A 30+ day rotation in Sept provides farms with an opportunity to spread lime
- Ground and weather conditions are suitable
- Grazing rotation length allows time between application and grazing
- Why lime?
- Liming will bring up the soil pH and increase soil nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) supply
- Improves nutrient use efficiency
Grass budget
- As covers increase there will be opportunity to phase out supplementation
- Do a grass budget/autumn plan for the farm
- Provides a structured grazing and supplementation plan to build grass on the farm in autumn and meet closing cover targets on Dec 1st
- The budget quantifies
- Amount of grass eaten (demand) vs amount of grass grown (supply)
- Amount of supplementation required to meet autumn grazing targets
- Level of grass growth required to meet target