GrazyDaiSy is a European participatory research project involving eight partner countries. In Germany, it was carried out by the University of Hohenheim and the organic farming associations Bioland and Demeter. The aim was to research regionally adapted systems for pasture-based organic dairy farming. In the other countries, research was also carried out on the topics of animal health and cow-calf contact systems.
Solution
There is no blanket optimal grazing or supplemental feeding strategy, as supplemental feeding is largely determined by farm-specific factors. However, the results of the project show that supplemental feeding can enhance the potential of using pasture forage for dairy cows.
Description
This fact sheet provides selected results of the second project phase. On seven farms, the following research was carried out in two consecutive years (2019 and 2020) in each of two periods (May to July and August to October) under practical conditions. An overview of the different farms and their pasture management can be seen in Table 1. Since the feed intake of the individual cows was not measured on farm G, this farm is not always listed in the following. Of the participating dairy farms, supplementary feeding in the barn one of the sticking points in milk production from pasture. Common goal of the farms is to feed as little as possible under the given conditions, but as much as necessary.
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