Abstract The effects of different grazing pressures on growth rate and net pasture production over three years were evaluated on two different dairy cow systems and two stocking rates. The two systems were: grassland for grazing and silage at 2.5 cow ha?1 (Treatment A) and grassland for grazing plus a maize/rye rotation for silage at two stocking rates: 2.5 cow ha?1 (Treatment B) and 3.0 cows ha?1 (Treatment C). Contrasting growth patterns of pasture were found in the three years because of different precipitation and temperature distributions. The introduction of crops into dairy systems resulted in an increase of stocking rate which modified pasture parameters. Stocking rate negatively affected instantaneous growth rate and net pasture production when the differences between treatments were relatively large.
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