National Ploughing Championships 2025: The autumn rotation plan that sets up next spring

Article summary: National Ploughing Championships (Screggan, Co. Offaly, 16–18 Sep 2025) is a perfect prompt to lock in your autumn grazing plan. Using Teagasc autumn guidance as the anchor, this article explains how and why to slow the rotation to build the feed wedge, includes a simple numbers example, highlights common failure points, and shows how Pasture.io’s growth vs demand view helps you act early (slow down or supplement) to hit cover targets.

The National Ploughing Championships at Screggan, Tullamore, Co. Offaly (16–18 September 2025) is the kind of week where half the country is talking farming.

It’s also a timely reminder that autumn grazing is not just about “staying out longer”. It’s about leaving the platform in a shape that makes next spring easier. Teagasc’s autumn guidance is blunt on this: good autumn management is what creates grass for early spring, not winter growth miracles.

The core idea: slow the rotation to build the wedge

A “wedge” is simply the spread of pasture covers across paddocks. In autumn, you want that spread to rise gradually so you can:

• keep decent quality in the grazed area now

• start closing paddocks in October for next spring

• avoid last-minute, weather-driven decisions

Teagasc frames this as building grass covers from mid-August by extending rotation length, with cover peaking in mid- to late-September, then beginning the final rotation in early-mid October and closing enough area on time for spring.

Step-by-step: the mid-September plan that protects spring feed

1) Set two targets you can steer weekly

Target A: rotation length increases (you deliberately slow down).
Teagasc’s rule of thumb is to build rotation length to 35+ days by mid-September, and keep stretching it toward late September and early October.

Target B: farm cover peaks mid- to late-September (you build the bank).
Teagasc gives practical peak cover targets in the ~1,000 to 1,200 kg DM/ha range depending on stocking rate, with a clear warning not to let peak cover get excessive on higher stocked farms.

2) Stretch rotation length gradually, not in one big jump

A useful way to think about it: slowing rotation means grazing less area per day, which gives the rest of the farm time to grow and lift average cover.

Teagasc suggests adding roughly two days per week to rotation length from mid-August, moving from about 25 days toward 40 days by around 1 October (farm and weather dependent).

3) Protect quality while you build cover

This is where many autumn plans fall over: you build grass, but it’s the wrong type of grass (too heavy, harder to graze out cleanly).

Teagasc’s grazing management guidance targets pre-grazing covers around 2,000–2,200 kg DM/ha in mid-September, and notes that covers above ~2,500 kg DM/ha are difficult to utilise and should be taken out as surplus earlier (ideally in August, not September).

4) Close for spring by doing the “boring” bits well

The point of slowing down is not to carry dead material into winter.

Teagasc’s Autumn Rotation Planner guidance includes:

• Start closing paddocks from around 10 October (earlier on wetter farms)

• Aim to have 60% grazed/closed by the end of the first week of November

• Graze out to about 3.5–4 cm in the last rotation to leave clean swards for spring

A simple numbers example

Here’s an example of what “slow the rotation to build the wedge” looks like on paper (illustrative, but aligned to Teagasc targets).

The direction is the point: rotation length stretches, farm cover rises, and the wedge becomes “spring feed in the bank”.

Common failure points (and how to dodge them)

Grazing too hard, too late

If you chase utilisation late into autumn and leave low residuals, you often pay twice: slower regrowth now and messier swards in spring. Teagasc explicitly ties autumn residuals to spring performance.

Losing quality by building cover too late

Building cover late often forces a September “rescue harvest” or leaving heavy covers that won’t graze out well. Teagasc warns against removing paddocks after early September because regrowth contribution is limited, and notes the trap of building cover too late.

Weather disruption (wet weeks and ground damage)

Autumn plans must survive rain. Teagasc’s Autumn Rotation Planner calls out wet-weather grazing techniques, and highlights on-off grazing as a way to maintain intake while reducing poaching risk.

How growth vs demand tells you when to slow down (or supplement)

When the plan starts drifting, your best lever is usually rotation speed first, then supplement to protect the pasture bank.

Teagasc repeatedly comes back to the same discipline: measure supply weekly, compare it to demand, and act quickly if cover falls behind target (supplement more, remove stock, or both).
Grass budgeting guidance in the UK also frames this as combining current covers with expected growth rates to identify surpluses or shortages early.

Pasture.io tie-in: make the wedge visible and reduce second-guessing

A practical weekly Pasture.io workflow for autumn:

1. Update paddock covers (satellite-backed covers plus any on-farm checks you use)

2. Build the feed wedge so paddocks are ranked by cover and you can plan the next grazings and which paddocks are being “closed”

3. Track average cover and rotation progress week to week (are you building the bank at the right pace?)

4. Check growth vs demand to spot the moment you must slow down or add supplement, before you’re forced into reactive housing or panic grazing

The win is not more data. It’s fewer late calls, and a rotation that stays intentional even when the weather doesn’t cooperate.

The takeaway

Autumn is where spring is earned. Use mid-September to deliberately slow the rotation, build the wedge without letting quality get away, and set up an October closing plan that leaves the platform clean and ready. Teagasc’s targets and timing give you a proven structure, and a simple growth vs demand check stops the plan drifting quietly until it hurts.

- The Dedicated Team of Pasture.io, 2025-09-25