Roughage tour Feeding strategy
Fresh grass popular in dairy farm feed strategy
Dairy farms need to pay extra attention to a sophisticated feed strategy this year with regard to the current price risks (high costs of concentrates), political risks (legislation and regulations) and weather risks. How do dairy farmers anticipate this and what do they adjust in their feed strategy. We asked the ten participants in the Boerenbusiness Roughage tour. Fresh grass appears to be popular with them this year.
The focus of Dutch dairy farmers has changed due to the high costs of concentrates, notes Remco Fuite, nutrition specialist at Agrifirm. Extra attention will be invested this year in the cultivation of roughage such as grass and silage maize. A major variable is always the weather conditions in the growing season. Fuite expects that next season there will be more attention for fresh grass in the form of grazing, but also stable feeding in order to reduce costs. "Depending on the soil type and roughage position, fertilizers may be cut later in the season," Fuite thinks. Ultimately, his advice is to continue to fertilize land where roughage for dairy cattle is produced. "It is important - especially for dairy cattle - to mow young cuts in order to get a good nutritional value in the silage."
Fresh grass in ration
The image of Fuite is confirmed by the participants of the Roughage Tour. Fresh grass may be more important than ever. For that reason, Frank Rooker (NH) and Bert Wissels (Gld) start grazing extra early. "That is at its best at this time of year. The temperature is great and the grass is tasty," says Rooker. Robert Welhuis (Dr.) will focus more this season on stable feeding than he has in recent years. Welhuis wants to start as soon as the land allows it and the grass growth increases.
Find other ways
There is also a small shift with regard to fertilizers and concentrates. Despite the large price increase, only Hans Schoenmakers (NBr) applied less fertilizer for the first time. At Schoenmakers, 32 cubic meters of slurry along with 8 cubic meters of mineral concentrate are fertilized per hectare. The mineral concentrate is a processed thin fraction of pig manure, which was supplied as fertilizer as a test. The slurry and mineral concentrate is fertilized as a homogeneous product. This saves on fertilizer. With later cuts, half of the participants expect that less fertilizer will be applied. Below in the diagram the expectation of the concentrated feed prospects among the participants.
It is clear that entrepreneurs continue to implement. Still, other dairy farmers are saving. Ultimately, they expect to compensate for this with good roughage or fresh grass, because they do not think about delivering less milk.
"Not immediately changeable"
Half of the participants in the Roughage Tour also indicated that they would "not immediately change their operational management". On the other hand, the other half indicated that they would draw extra attention to the focus of business operations. Think of 'Trying to milk more liters from roughage' or 'Try to pay even more attention to costs'. Fertilizing more efficiently to save fertilizer is also a goal of some of the dairy farmers: 'tow hoses with a lot of water to increase the yield of grassland'. "It is very good for dairy farmers to keep thinking about these strategies. When the focus is not right and subjects remain unanswered, it can be clearly noticeable in the wallet in these times," Fuite concludes.
Reuben van der Maas
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