Article summary: UK Dairy Day (10 Sep 2025, Telford) is a good prompt to set your September grazing plan. This calendar-style guide shows how to build covers through September while protecting pasture quality, with practical wet-weather contingencies and a simple Pasture.io workflow to track average cover, rotation progress, and growth vs demand.
UK Dairy Day in Telford (10 September 2025) lands right in the window where your autumn grazing plan either protects spring feed or creates a slow-motion squeeze you spend weeks trying to recover from.
September is not about smashing utilisation. It’s about building a feed bank without letting pasture quality get away from you, and doing it in a way that still works when the weather turns.
The simple goal for September
You’re trying to do three things at once:
1) Build average cover so you have feed “in front of you” as growth slows.
2) Keep quality in the grazed area so performance holds and regrowth stays strong.
3) Protect the next rotation so you are not forced into reactive housing or emergency supplementation.
In ryegrass-based systems, autumn guidance commonly targets a peak average cover around mid-September (often around 2,600 kg DM/ha) before easing toward a closing cover later in autumn.
Before you start: set two targets (then steer weekly)
You only need two targets to make September calmer:
Target A: a mid-September average cover (your “bank”).
A common benchmark is building toward about 2,600 kg DM/ha by mid-September in rotational systems.
Target B: a rotation length trajectory (your “speed”).
A practical example is stretching from roughly 30 days in early September, to 35 days by mid-September, to 40 days by early October, adjusting for growth and ground conditions.
If you don’t use kg DM/ha, that’s fine. Use the same idea: set an “average cover” target and a “rotation speed” target, then check progress weekly.
Your September calendar
Week 1 of September: set the rotation speed and stop early quality losses
Aim: Start building average cover while conditions still allow good utilisation.
Key decision: Set a rotation length that slows you down a touch (not a lot). If you rush the first week, you can graze too much area too early and struggle to rebuild cover later.
Pasture quality guardrail: If pre-graze covers are getting too heavy to utilise cleanly, pull out surplus early rather than trying to force it through the rotation. Teagasc notes that very heavy covers can be difficult to graze well and are often better removed as surplus.
If it’s wet: Prioritise paddocks that carry stock better and avoid repeated treading in the same gateways and trough areas. Back-fencing and strip grazing reduce damage when you must graze wet ground.
Mid-September: build the bank, but keep the wedge tidy
Aim: Hit (or approach) your mid-September average cover target while maintaining a grazeable profile.
Key decision: If you are on track for cover, resist the temptation to “speed up for convenience”. This is the point where discipline protects spring feed.
What to watch: A rising average cover is only helpful if quality remains manageable. If you’re building cover but pasture is getting stemmy or heading, you’re storing the wrong feed.
If it’s wet: Use “short access” grazing (on-off) as a tactical tool to protect soil and sward. The principle is simple: harvest intake, then get off before you cause the damage you’ll pay for later.
End of September: protect the next rotation and make housing a choice, not a panic
Aim: Enter October with paddocks that are protected, not punished.
Key decision: Decide which paddocks you are protecting for the next rotation (and which, if any, you are willing to sacrifice if weather closes in).
Rotation move: If growth is slowing, you generally extend rotation length again to protect residuals and regrowth potential. Guidance for autumn grazing often pushes rotation length out as September progresses for exactly this reason.
If it’s wet: The cheapest compaction to fix is the compaction you never create. If conditions are deteriorating, your best “wet-weather plan” can be earlier housing or a stand-off option rather than chewing up the platform. AHDB’s livestock compaction guidance includes taking stock off wet fields, reducing stocking pressure, and lengthening rotations in wet conditions.
How to avoid the two common September mistakes
Mistake 1: Building cover by letting everything get too heavy.
You end up with poor utilisation, declining quality, and a messy next rotation. Fix it by removing surplus early and keeping the wedge grazeable.
Mistake 2: Protecting quality by grazing too fast.
You keep pasture “nice” but your average cover falls, and you run out of options when growth drops. Fix it by slowing rotation first, then using supplement to protect residuals if needed.
Pasture.io workflow: monitor cover and rotation so housing decisions aren’t reactive
September is where weekly measurement pays for itself.
A simple Pasture.io routine:
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Update paddock covers and refresh your feed wedge so you can see what’s really in front of you.
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Check average cover trend (is your feed bank building or slipping?).
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Track rotation progress (are you moving at the pace you planned?).
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Sanity-check growth vs demand so you can see whether the gap is closing or widening.
If the trend says you’re drifting, you adjust earlier and smaller: rotation speed first, then supplement, then demand. That’s how housing becomes a planned call, not a rescue mission.
The takeaway
September grazing success is boring on purpose: build average cover steadily, keep quality grazeable, protect residuals, and use wet-weather tactics early enough that you don’t damage the platform you’ll need in spring.
- The Dedicated Team of Pasture.io, 2025-09-11