An agro-ecological dairy cattle system to allow all year round grazing
Résumé
In order to face the new challenges of dairy farming in north-west Europe, an innovative dairy system (90 ha, 72 cows, Lusignan, France) was redesigned to be resilient to climate change, while saving water and fossil fuel resources and contributing to sustainable agriculture. This system relies on the grazing of diversified forage resources and on an adapted cattle breeding system. The herd reproduction is based on two calving periods centred on spring and autumn. The age of heifers at first calving is reduced to 24 months, and the lactation length is extended to 16 months. A three-way crossing of dairy breeds (Holstein, Scandinavian Red, Jersey) was implemented to have more robust cows, with good reproduction capacity and well adapted to grazing. Grazed forage did not yet succeed in reaching 100% of the dairy herd feed in spring and 25% in winter, but was close or higher than the objective of 50% in summer and autumn, thanks to the grazing of various forage resources.
Domaines
Sciences agricolesOrigine | Fichiers éditeurs autorisés sur une archive ouverte |
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