• Energy Research

In many intensive dairy regions in northwest Europe, a decline in grazing is observed. In the Netherlands, the proportion of dairy cows with access to pasture is declining, as well as the time spent grazing per cow. The decline in grazing is seen as an unwanted trend by many stakeholders and is, thus, under debate amongst dairy farmers, the dairy chain, and society. Therefore, a public–private partnership was initiated to encourage grazing by providing farmers with usable means of improving their grazing systems. The partnership involved stakeholders from the dairy farming community, dairy and feed industry, agrotechnical industries, advisory services, and research. The objective of this partnership was to develop and stimulate technological innovations and management measures that increase fresh grass intake at pasture. The innovation network combined an integrated research approach with farmer working groups and broader stakeholder interactive meetings. The project started with a comprehensive grass intake framework, which was the foundation for exploration of innovations. The framework consisted of six interlinked components: soil, grass growth, grass supply, grass intake, feed supplementation, and cow behavior. In a continuous interactive cycle, strategic choices were made to focus on potentially effective innovations. The use of a public–private partnership to develop usable innovations that encourage grazing practices proven to be a good approach to develop a shared vision among stakeholders. It provided a basis to work together toward innovative practices and to disseminate the outcomes to the foreseen users. The approach succeeded in design concepts for two specific innovations, i.e., weekly grass growth predictions and daily fresh grass intake tracking. We demonstrated that meaningful grazing and fresh grass intake are possible in intensive dairy systems with high stocking rates and high levels of supplementary feeding.

The need for mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from dairy farms has been widely acknowledged. However, there is barely any knowledge on GHG emissions and mitigation options on commercial dairy farms. Most of the farmers are not aware of the GHG emissions on their farms and their attitude towards suggested mitigation measures is largely unknown. This study aims to provide insight in the variation of GHG emissions on commercial dairy farms and in the farmers' preferences for mitigation options and to investigate the effects of these options on GHG emissions and farm economy. The average GHG emission on the commercial farms was 1.08 kg CO2-equivalents per kg milk. The variation in emissions could be attributed to a combination of factors as soil type, fertilizer input, grazing system and feeding management. The preferred mitigation options were an increase of the milk production per cow, replacement of concentrates with single by-products, the use of more maize in animal feeding, the use of a heat pump and heat re-use from milk and reduction of the fertilizer N input. Farmers tend to choose mitigation options that are relatively simple and either cost effective or with only relatively small additional costs. The most promising mitigation options with respect to cost effectiveness are less replacement of dairy cattle and replacement of concentrates by single by-products grown in the vicinity of the farm. Other mitigation options which lead to land use change might be less effective due to possible trade offs. Overall, a total mitigation of 310 to 360 g CO2-equivalents per kg milk is achievable. This is a reduction of 25 to 30% compared to 1990. It is expected that this reduction can be achieved with relatively little costs.

In temperate regions of Europe where grass grows for most of the year, grazed pasture is the lowest cost feed for milk production. Grazed pasture can make a contribution to dairy cow feeding systems in other parts of Europe, but is less important. While there are many challenges to maintaining or increasing the proportion of grazed grass in dairy cow diets, there are also opportunities to increase its contribution. Grass use and quality can be challenging for several reasons, including the cow and sward interaction, and factors influencing dry matter intake. Adapting grazing management strategies can provide opportunities for incorporating grazing and perhaps increase grazing in dairy cow milk production systems. Pasture management tools and techniques offer the opportunity to increase herbage use at grazing. While there are many benefits of grazing including economic, environmental, animal welfare and social, there are also the challenges to maintaining grazed pasture in dairy cow diets. The objective of this paper is to present an overview of the challenges and opportunities for grazing in dairy milk production systems.

Grazing is inherently close to the nature of herbivores, but no longer applied everywhere in Europe. Therefore, the perception of grassland experts on the occurrence, importance, constraints, solutions and future of grazing of dairy cows was studied. The study builds on results from the European Grassland Federation Working Group Grazing in the period 2010–2019. Both surveys and focus group meetings were used. There is a clear trend of reduced grazing in Europe. Since grazing is valued by different stakeholders and provides many ecosystem services, solutions to the constraints to grazing must be found. Constraints can be divided into region specific constraints, farm specific constraints and farmer specific constraints. The solutions include developing new knowledge, bringing the knowledge already available to practice and rewarding farmers for grazing as a service to society. If grazing is not supported, it will further decline. However, a joined endeavour has the potential to make a significant difference in transforming grass-based production systems and stimulating grazing.