Description
On test farm De Marke, situated in Hengelo (Gld.), research is carried out into a clean and profitable dairy farm, where attempts are made to minimize the burden of the environment. Gerjan Hilhorst is one of the researchers. The research focus is how the losses of ammonia, nitrate, phosphate and greenhouse gases can be limited as much as possible. This is tried by using manure and minerals as efficiently as possible. The experimental farm is very focused on the efficiency of manure, minerals and roughage.
To increase the efficiency, the company uses a management tool that predicts the grass growth per plot. This contributes to a better understanding of the crop growth on a parcel and can help to determine the ideal harvest moment, to make a difference in efficiency. At this moment the system only predicts kilo-grams of dry matter per hectare, this will be expanded in the coming years with a prediction of raw protein and VEM value of the grass. The system predicts grass growth by linking different information. Data that must be entered in the system are the current grass height, fertilization, weather and moisture conditions in the soil.
The system is still in development, at the moment no distinction is made between nitrogen from animal manure and nitrogen from artificial fertilizer. Furthermore, the moisture balance on the bottom of the farm is very decisive for the growth of grass, because of the drought-sensitive soil, the system now does not take sufficient account of this. At this moment the system can only be applied to the parcels that are only used for mowing and not the parcels that are grazed, the company wants to make this possible in the future.
Reason for the innovation
The strategy of the farm is based on the best efficiency of the nutrient balance.
- Achievements: Too predict the grass growth
- Failures: The system works very irregularly and takes too little account of the moisture condition.
- Results: Better grass quality
Farm description
Environment
- Soil: Sandy
- Climate: Temperate oceanic
- Altitude: ±sea level
- Slope: flat
Grassland management
- Grazing: Yes
- Grazing management: Strip stocking
- Length of grazing periode: 5 months/year
- Main composition grassland: Perennial ryegrass, Italian ryegrass, Festulolium, red and white clovers
Structure
- Annual work units (AWU): 1,3
- Agricultural Area 33 ha UAA
- Permanent grassland 11 ha
- Temporary grassland 22 ha
- Production method Conventional
- Stock
- 90 dairy cows
- 50 young stock
- Breed Holstein-Friesian
Animal performance
- Milk production: 8600 kg/year
Why it is working
The innovation is still in development. When it is ready you can make decisions for give the manure and fertilizer.
- The farm can make samples from all the cars with grass and maize silage
- Due to the test farm system, there is a lot of data available for this innovation
- It will increase the efficiency on manure, fertilizer and soil quality
