Influence of grassland and feeding management on technical and economic results of dairy farms

摘要

A field study of 38 dairy farms was set up to determine the relationships between feeding management, grassland management and feed costs per 100 kg of milk, 305-day milk production, and nitrogen surplus per ha. Data of the farms were (among other things) on management (based on questionnaires), grassland calendar, milk production and economic data for the period of May 1996 to May 1997. Partial Least Squares (PLS) was used to analyze the data, because of the large number of variables relative to the number of farms. The R-2 Of the models ranged between 0.32 (nitrogen surplus model) and 0.60 (feed costs model). The nitrogen surplus model did not have predictive relevance. The PLS-model for feed costs resulted in the hypotheses that (1) a high percentage of pasture that cannot be grazed by the cows results in an increase in feed costs, (2) a high percentage of grazings lasting longer than 4 days increases feed costs, (3) mistakes in set-up of the paddocks cannot be compensated for by exact planning, and (4) farmers who have not organized their grazing;management well, also tend to have worse results as to their silage management. The milk production model showed that a high milk production per cow is realized on farms with too low a number of growing days for cutting.