Description

Practice abstract

Karl-Johan Lennartson runs the farm Intakan in southwest Sweden with a dairy production with 135 cows and 200 young cattle. The farm has 200 ha arable land and 100 ha semi-natural grasslands. The young cattle graze the semi-natural grasslands while the dairy cows graze a smaller pasture on temporary grasslands. 

The region is rich in semi-natural grasslands witch are often small areas fenced together with forest which is also grazed by the animals. Almost 10 km of fences requires time and maintenance. Karl-Johan is committed to preserving the grasslands. That’s important for the area, that otherwise would turn into forest. 

Most of the land is damp. A challenge is to get the pastures evenly grazed as the growth varies from year to year. Agri-environmental payments are crucial for the grazing and are associated with conditions for management. An important challenge is the unwanted establishment of trees and shrubs, with alder being the biggest problem. There is also meadowsweet and soft-rush. 

Many measures are taken in order to keep the land properly grazed and to clear trees and shrubs. The land is cleared manually with clearing saws or tractor clearing chains once a year. The fact that the land is moist and rocky means that access with a tractor is not always possible. Clearing is time consuming. More measures would be desirable, for example chemical control of alder. 

The cows are cross-bred with beef breed genetics in order to obtain animals that are suited for grazing on semi-natural grasslands. This regards all animals that are not selected for the dairy production. Cattle groups of 10–15 heads graze pastures rotating between 3–4 paddocks. Early grazing in april with complementary fodder is also used. 

Context profil