Description

Practice abstract

Johnny van der Zanden runs a dairy farm in Dreumel, Gelderland, on river clay soil. He manages 135 dairy cows on a grazing platform of 40 hectares of grassland, using two milking robots. His challenge is to balance grazing time with ensuring that the cows spend enough time in the barn to be milked. 

A selection gate placed directly behind the milking robots helps distribute milking times throughout the day, effectively optimizing the robots’ capacity. 

Johnny employs two grazing systems: 

• During favourable weather: Compartmented continuous grazing, where cows graze one plot for two days before being moved to the next. 

• During less favourable weather: Strip grazing to maintain adequate grass availability. Johnny finds strip grazing more convenient when mowing or fertilising is necessary. 

Johnny remains flexible in his approach, as grass growth, temperature, sunlight, and animal behaviour constantly change. He continuously adjusts his grazing strategy based on these factors. 

Context profil