Combining grazing and high mineral efficiency
2018
In the Netherlands many farmers assume
pasture
grazingfor dairy cows to be less efficient in terms of mineral utilisation than indoor housing systems. The gross annual grass yield is assumed to be lower as well. Since 2016, Dutch
dairy farmersare obliged to use the ANCA-tool (Annual
Nutrient CyclingAssessment) to show the mineral efficiency of their farms. Farmers claim that
pasture
grazingleads to a worse ANCA performance than indoor housing. This claim puts pressure on
pasture
grazing. Therefore, a study was performed to analyse the effect of
grazingon mineral efficiency. The analysis of a dataset containing 2,725 ANCA results of Dutch
dairy farmsshowed that the average phosphorus and nitrogen excretion for farms that apply
pasture
grazingfor their cows for less than 1000 hours cow-1 yr-1 were not significantly different from the indoor housing systems. On farms that apply
grazingfor more than that, the mineral excretion was higher. Measures were identified to improve the mineral efficiency, e.g. less young stock,
feeding additionalroughage and concentrate low in protein and phosphorus. This study shows that farms with restricted
grazingcan combine
grazingand mineral efficiency.
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