Irish Grassland Research — main achievements and advancements in the past 60 yrs and where to progress to next

Abstract

In the last 60 yr Irish grassland production has increased substantially in no small part due to high-quality fundamental grassland research. Increased production from grassland has arisen from improved understanding (research and practice) of soil and plant nutrition, plant physiology and variety improvement, while improved understanding of feed evaluation, ruminant nutrition, grazing management and silage technology has contributed to increased utilisation of grassland. Annual grass DM production varies from 12.7 to 15.0 t DM/ha based on Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine grass variety trials. More recent data from PastureBase Ireland indicate that average annual grass production (2020) on efficient dairy and dry stock farms is 13.5 and 10.0 t DM/ha, respectively. Ireland is now one of the world leaders in grassland research, particularly in the area of grazing utilisation, the development and use of grassland databases, decision support systems and grass selection indices for grass varieties. Future pasture-based systems must extend beyond food production to deliver additional benefits to farmers, to consumers and the wider society. Future systems will require more robust grazing animals with healthier functional traits, more diverse swards supporting improved animal performance and require fewer fertiliser and chemical inputs, and will support more biodiversity and enhanced carbon storage.

The effect of spring grass availability and silage supplementation on dairy cow performance and dry matter intake during early lactation

“…A sub-sample (100 g) of the herbage sample was dried for 16 h at 90°C to determine the DM content. Pre-grazing herbage mass was calculated using the following equation (O'Donovan et al, 2002):…”

GPS technology as a tool to aid pasture management on dairy farms

“…By contrast, in Ireland, farmers are encouraged to use PastureBase Ireland (PBI), a national grassland management decision support database tool, to record paddock grazing events and other land management actions such as reseeding and fertiliser application (Hanrahan et al, 2017). This provides valuable data for research and benchmarking purposes (O'Donovan et al, 2022).…”