Eurodairy: a bottom-up approach to transfer innovations on grass to European farmers

摘要

EuroDairy is a Horizon 2020 thematic network to connect dairy farmers aiming to improve the performance of their farms. The project follows the interactive model of practice-based innovation. It promotes the formation of a cross border network of 42 operational groups and or 120 innovating pilot farmers in 14 different European countries. EuroDairy facilitates intensive interactions so that innovations identified in one country or region can be shared with others. The project focuses on four key topics affecting future sustainability of EU dairy farming: socioeconomic-resilience, resource efficiency, animal care and biodiversity. In many farms or groups, grazing is one of the means chosen by farmers and researchers to improve one or more of these key issues. The aim of our paper is to describe one of these innovations and how it is transferred from farmer to farmer via the bottom-up approach. The topic chosen is to improve understanding of grass growth and quality in various backgrounds, to improvegrazing management in Northern Ireland thanks to the 'GrassCheck' innovative programme.