Grazing with monocultures and mixtures

Description

  • Grazing monoculture swards
  • Reseed and graze monoculture swards to identify which varieties work best on the farm and to see the value of monocultures
  • Growing more grass: some varieties good quality and palatable
  • Identification of top performing varieties
  • Identification and assessment of different grass varieties
  • Economic results
  • Discussion groups
  • Produce more milk from grass by using top varieties of grass

Reason for the innovation

Produce more milk from grazed grass

  • Measuring grass on Pasturebase Ireland
  • Reseed and graze monoculture swards to identify which varieties work best on the farm and to see the value of monocultures

Farm description

Environment

  • Soil type: Sandy-loam
  • Climate type: Temperate Oceanic
  • Altitude: Variation across the farm
  • Slope: Variation across different paddocks
  • Agricultural area (ha UAA): 190
  • Average stocking rate (agriculture area) (LU/ha UAA): 2.8

Grassland management

  • Grazing: Yes
  • Grazing management type: Rotational grazing

Structure

  • Annual work units (AWU): 3
  • Number of cows (heads): 380
  • Breed type 1: Fr
  • Permanent grassland area (ha): 190
  • Average stocking rate (agriculture area) (LU/ha UAA): 2.8

Animal performance

  • Milk production per head (l/year/dairy animal): 5800l
  • Grassland management type: Rotational
  • Length of grazing period (month/year): 295
  • Fertilization rate (kg N/ha): 235

Why it is working

  • Growing more grass, some varieties are good quality and palatable
  • Identification of top performing varieties
  • Identification and assessment of different grass varieties
  • Economic results
  • Discussion groups
  • Produce more milk off grass by using top varieties of grass
  • Pasturebase Ireland

Additional information

Farming system

conventional farming

Domains of innovation

forage mixture, grazing management system

Main types of animal

dairy cattle

Country

Ireland

Product type

Farmer portrait

Language

English

You may also like…

Grassland Farmer of the Year 2017 Ireland

Top
Translate »
Tweet
Share