Description
The farm of Jerzy Kostrzewa was 20 ha big with few cows, few pigs and traditional crop production. Today the farm is 106 ha big with 230 dairy cows with 10500 l annual milk production per cow and is solely focused on dairy business. Such growth was driven by external economic and market factors as well as farmer’s own ambitions, skills and knowledge on dairy trends in Poland and in Europe. The farmer owns 23 ha of permanent grassland along Obra valley. To find the best way of his grassland management, he divided his grasslands into 3 parts in the seasons 2015 and 2016. One was left as original to see results of the other two treatments. The second one was cultivated by oversowing existing grassland with a specially dedicated mixture of grasses and legumes. The third one was based on ploughing and reseeding of a new mixture of grasses and legumes. The best results were obtained with reseeding. The volume of grass production from this trial was 21,9% higher in comparison with oversowing and 85,6% higher in comparison with the untouched, original grassland. Not only the volume of production increase but also the forage quality. Crude protein increased by 20,4% in comparison with oversowing and 45% in comparison with the original meadow. A proper water management in this valley is very important. Lack of actions in this regard causes either too much water or too little water available for grass production.
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