Feeding calendar improves grazing and feeding autonomy

During the first meeting the six Luxembourgish pilot farmers expressed their wish to improve their feeding autonomy. Concentrates are expensive and a high milk production from forage allows reducing feed costs. To face this challenge, they were asked to fill in feeding calendars.

Every day they noted the exact quantitie of feed they offered their cows and the total milk production. In addition they noted the plots where the cows grazed. These data allow calculating the total dry matter intake of grazed grass (by the equation of Chase and Sniffen). The system of the feeding calendar increases the farmers’ confidence in their roughage feed and the pasture grass. It helps them to monitor the consequences of their feed management and act on it accordingly.

In a second meeting, the feeding calendars were presented in a graphical form. This resulted in lively discussions in which the pilot farmers exchanged their experiences of the last months. To increase grass intake and decrease concentrate intake, they learned the importance of reducing the different components of the feed ration step by step. If the quality of the roughage feed is good, the concentrates can be easily reduced to a certain quantity without a decrease of the milk production. In the same way reducing the grass silage is compensated by an increase of fresh grass intake.

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