Patur' IN: computer-assisted grazing of dairy cows.

摘要

Dairy cows grazing management require anticipation and adaptation. The breeder has to anticipate the herd feeding with an uncertain and reactive forage resource. The consequences entailed by different tactical options are difficult to evaluate. Thesofware, Patur' IN, designed to grazing management, met to this problem. This software enable to analyse the past (by drawing grazing plan and calculating different grazing schedule) and to organize the future (by calculating with different mathematicalmodels the grass growth and herbage utilisation). The originality of the software lies in the updating of the paddock state recorded during the grazing season and of the decade grass growth grid, with an innovating method based on platemeter measurements. The 'Growth' function is initialized with the grass growth grid and calculate, day per day, the specific paddock grass growth according to the actual biomass, the level of fertilization applied,...etc. The 'Intake' function, working with simple herd information like milk potential, calving date, supplementary feeding and with the simulated grass heights, determines the possible grazing duration on each paddock, according to the grazing conditions define by the Patur'IN user. Thanks to large and varieddecision rules, Patur' IN make it possible to simulate grazing, moving, fertilization, etc. and to study several scenarii at different scales of time and space before making the decision.