PastureBase Ireland: A grassland decision support system and national database

Hanrahan, Liam; Geoghegan, A.; O’Donovan, Michael; Griffith, V.; Ruelle, E.; Wallace, Michael; Shalloo, L.

doi:10.1016/j.compag.2017.01.029

Cited by 108 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…This study has demonstrated that dairy farmers can operate profitably at relatively higher grazing intensity while at the same time showing that the benefits of increasing concentrate supplementation are limited, similar to what has been shown previously (Shalloo et al, 2004c;McCarthy et al, 2007). Nationally, Irish dairy farms are on average stocked at approximately 2 cows/ha, and they feed approximately 900 kg of concentrate/cow (Hanrahan et al, 2017). Thus, there are opportunities to increase grass growth and reduce concentrate while at the same time increasing profitable milk production once the focus is on increased grass growth at the farm level.…”

Section: Economicssupporting

confidence: 74%

Using models to establish the financially optimum strategy for Irish dairy farms

Ruelle

Delaby

Wallace

et al. 2018

Journal of Dairy Science

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Determining the effect of a change in management on farm with differing characteristics is a significant challenge in the evaluation of dairy systems due to the interacting components of complex biological systems. In Ireland, milk production is increasing substantially following the abolition of the European Union milk quota regime in 2015. There are 2 main ways to increase the milk production on farm (within a fixed land base): either increase the number of animals (thus increasing the stocking rate) or increase the milk production per animal through increased feeding or increased lactation length. In this study, the effect of increased concentrate feeding or an increase in grazing intensity was simulated to determine the effect on the farm system and its economic performance. Four stocking rates (2.3, 2.6, 2.9, and 3.2 cow/ha) and 5 different concentrate supplementation strategies (0, 180, 360, 600, and 900 kg of dry matter/lactation) resulting in 20 different scenarios were evaluated across different milk, concentrate, and silage purchase prices. Each simulation was run across 10 yr of meteorological data, which had been recorded over the period 2004 to 2013. Three models-the Moorepark and St Gilles grass growth model, the pasture-based herd dynamic milk model, and the Moorepark dairy systems modelwere integrated and applied to simulate the different scenarios. Overall, this study has demonstrated that the most profitable scenario was a stocking rate of 2.6 cow/ha with a concentrate supplementation of 600 kg of dry matter/cow. The factor that had the greatest influence on profitability was variability of milk price.

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Section: Economicssupporting

confidence: 74%

Using models to establish the financially optimum strategy for Irish dairy farms

Ruelle

Delaby

Wallace

et al. 2018

Journal of Dairy Science

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“…If a herbage deficit occurred in less than four sward treatments, conserved forage (baled silage) produced within each sward treatment was used to supplement the deficit. Grazing management was undertaken by weekly monitoring of farm herbage cover (O'Donovan, ) within each sward treatment using a decision support tool, PastureBase Ireland (Hanrahan et al., ), to produce a weekly herbage wedge, a visual aid to assess herbage supply to facilitate management decisions on‐farm during the grazing season. In the first rotation (February and March), grazing management was based on allocating an equal and increasing proportion of each farmlet to each treatment up to the start of the second rotation.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of perennial ryegrass, Lolium perenne L., ploidy and white clover, Trifolium repens L., inclusion for herbage production, utilization and nutritive value

Guy

Hennessy

Gilliland

et al. 2018

Grass and Forage Science

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Increasing herbage dry‐matter (DM) production and utilization on‐farm improves efficiency and sustainability. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of perennial ryegrass, Lolium perenne L., ploidy and white clover, Trifolium repens L., inclusion on herbage DM production and utilization in an intensive animal grazing system, with high nitrogen (N) inputs (250 kg N ha−1) and a high stocking rate (2.75 livestock units ha−1). The study was a 2 × 2 factorial design, consisting of diploid and tetraploid cultivars sown as grass‐only and grass‐white clover to give four sward treatments (diploid‐only, tetraploid‐only, diploid‐white clover, tetraploid‐white clover). These were evaluated at each grazing occasion (8–10 per year) for 3 years (2014–2016). Tetraploid‐white and grass‐white clover swards had a lower sward density (−9 and −8 kg DM cm−1, respectively) and perennial ryegrass tiller density (−820 and −1,436 tillers m−2, respectively) leading to lower postgrazing sward heights (−0.15 and −0.41 cm, respectively), and maintained a superior nutritive value when compared with diploid‐only and grass‐only swards respectively. White clover inclusion resulted in higher productivity characterized by increased herbage DM production (+1,468 kg DM ha−1), improved nutritive value and increased utilization across the three grazing seasons. Varying sward composition with perennial ryegrass ploidy led to improved nutritive value and favourable grazing characteristics in tetraploid swards.

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“…For instance, "PastureBase Ireland" is a web-based grassland management application that helps farmers to determine the appropriate actions around pasture management (Hanrahan et al, 2017). weekly) pasture herbage mass estimates, either from a plate meter or from cutting and weighing/visual assessment, to be assimilated and used to guide pasture management.…”

Section: Grazing Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Some challenges and opportunities for grazing dairy cows on temperate pastures

Wilkinson

Lee

Rivero

et al. 2019

Grass and Forage Science

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Grazing plays an important role in milk production in most regions of the world. In this review, some challenges to the grazing cow are discussed together with opportunities for future improvement. We focus on daily feed intake, efficiency of pasture utilization, output of milk per head, environmental impact of grazing and the nutritional quality to humans of milk produced from dairy cows in contrasting production systems. Challenges are discussed in the context of a trend towards increased size of individual herds and include limited and variable levels of daily herbage consumption, lower levels of milk output per cow, excessive excretion of nitrogenous compounds and requirements for minimal periods of grazing regardless of production system.A major challenge is to engage more farmers in making appropriate adjustments to their grazing management. In relation to product quality, the main challenge is to demonstrate enhanced nutritional/processing benefits of milk from grazed cows.Opportunities include more accurate diet formulations, supplementation of grazed pasture to match macro-and micronutrient supply with animal requirement and plant breeding. The application of robotics and artificial intelligence to pasture management will assist in matching daily supply to animal requirement. Wider consumer recognition of the perceived enhanced nutritional value of milk from grazed cows, together with greater appreciation of the animal health, welfare and behavioural benefits of grazing should contribute to the future sustainability of demand for milk from dairy cows on pasture. K E Y W O R D Sgrazed pasture, grazing management, herbage intake, milk production, milk quality, nitrogen use efficiency Highlights• Grazing plays a central role in the nutrition of dairy cows in many regions of the world.• Challenges to efficient management of grazed pastures include variable herbage supply and low herbage intake, which limit milk output per head.• Opportunities for improved efficiency include more accurate diet formulation, breeding superior plant cultivars to improve ruminal efficiency and enhance product nutritional quality, application of robotics, sensors and artificial intelligence to improve grazing management and pasture utilization, and wider consumer recognition of the perceived enhanced value of milk from grazed cows.TA B L E 1 Average size of dairy herd, average annual milk yield per cow and average annual output of milk per herd in New Zealand,

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PastureBase Ireland: A grassland decision support system and national database

Cited by 108 publications

References 22 publications

Using models to establish the financially optimum strategy for Irish dairy farms

Using models to establish the financially optimum strategy for Irish dairy farms

Comparison of perennial ryegrass, Lolium perenne L., ploidy and white clover, Trifolium repens L., inclusion for herbage production, utilization and nutritive value

Some challenges and opportunities for grazing dairy cows on temperate pastures

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