InTouch - October 2025

September can be like a bonus month for many farmers. A stretch of good weather and steady grass growth, without the need for winter feeding, is a real win. Unlike 2024 we didn’t get that this year and 2025 has delivered double and, in some parts, treble the rainfall levels of September 2024. Regardless, feeding continues right up to and including the winter, especially as we try and build grass covers.
On many farms, milk yield has dropped. Some might say that this is down to the lack of grass and reliance on silage. In reality, the energy gap between good silage and good grass is equivalent to about two litres of milk. Any further drop signals an energy shortfall, which must be offset with extra silage and concentrates. As highlighted in previous articles, the guiding principle for any autumn feeding regime is simple: protect animal intake, and everything else will follow. A loss of just 2kg of dry matter intake (DMI) now can lead to four litres less milk. Once it is lost, it is hard to recover.
The response to feeding now goes beyond milk yield; body condition or cow weight are just as important. With only six weeks left until dry-off for January-calving cows, we need to be getting cows into the correct body condition score (BCS) for this time. Examine cows, especially in the thurl region – see image below – and you should see a more U-shaped than V-shaped definition. This is not a complete BCS technique but if you are seeing U-shaped then you are around BCS 3 or above. If you are seeing V-shaped, then you have work to do.

Remember, animals are more efficient at putting on condition when they are milking than when they are dry and you have the extra bonus of getting a return of some high-value milk as well. When calculating the return on investment of feeding milking cows you need to subtract the cost of feeding them when they are dry. This is the actual cost of getting 10-12 litres of milk. Heifers and cows under pressure might need extra TLC as they begin to lose a lot of gut fill in late lactation and will have the appearance of their gut being higher than their udder.