New grass technologies to boost dairy farm profitability
More than 130 Agricultural Science Association (ASA) members attended a day-long workshop at the Grassland Research Centre, Teagasc Moorepark, on Wednesday, for an update on new technologies in grassland.
A large gathering of farmers are also expected at the Mooreark centre this morning for the launch of a new Teagasc online service to promote enhanced grass utilisation on farms.
Teagasc’s Prof Pat Dillon said: “Currently, spring calving Irish dairy farmers are utilising 7.8 tonnes of grass dry matter per hectare. We estimate that this can be increased to 10 tonnes utilised by 2025 if the technologies we’re developing at Moorepark are adopted.”
Today’s event in Fermoy will see the launch of the Teagacs Grass 10 campaign, a drive to boost grass use on Irish livestock farms by 2020. The campaign’s objective is for Irish dairy, beef and sheep farms to use 10 tonnes of grass dry matter per hectare per annum utilised, and to reach grazings per paddock per annum.
Agriculture Minister, Michael Creed, will also help Teagasc launch PastureBase Ireland, a new online grassland measurement database, used for advisory, education and research. The database stores all grassland measurements in a common structure.
Teagasc says grass growth and dry matter production, both total and seasonal, can be quantified using a common measurement protocol and methodology across different enterprises, grassland management systems, regions and soil types.
At this week’s Moorepark workshop, Teagasc experts told ASA members that maximising spring grass is worth €2.70 per cow per extra day at grass. They also offered indepth advice on the links between summer and autumn grass utilisation and farm profitability.
