Description
Description of the innovation
The Schwarting is located in Northern Germany. It is a grassland farm with 145 dairy cows and 92 hectares of land. In the summer the grassland is used exclusive-ly for the animals . Jörg Schwarting also wanted to continue grazing after the con-version to AMS (Automatic Milking System), because the production site is predes-tined for grassland and of course pasture. The pasture has a long tradition in the Wesermarsch and the farmer did not want to give it up because the pasture serves as the basis for his fodder.
Tracking with a transmitter collar enables the farmer to observe and evaluate all the activities of the cows in detail. The milking activities are recorded in the robot and later serve as a control instrument. In the summer months the cows have pas-ture which was difficult at the beginning to reconcile with the milking robot but due to a perfect path infrastructure and the automatic selection gate the pasture could cooperate perfectly with the AMS system. Two selection gates lead the cows to pasture A (morning pasture) or B (afternoon pasture) depending on milk-ing rights. The way back is possible without control and there is also a light at the gate that allows the cows to find their way back to the barn at night. The third sta-tion C is then the barn, where the cows can be fed with hay.
Results obtained with the adoption of the innovation
With his own AB pasturing system and his selection gates, he maintains the cow flow from the first milking to pasture in the morning (A), back to stable for milking to the afternoon pasture (B) and afterwards back to stable for milking for the third time. „Cow flow“ is ensured by staking out the portion pasture.
This technique allows the farmer to practise pasture grazing without having big effort to select unmilked cows from the milked ones. Meanwhile, he saves time and can deal with other work.
Advantages
- Animal control
- Cow flow
- Grazing is possible even with automatic milking system
Disadvantages
- Staking out new pieces of grass twice a day to maintain the cow flow
- High investment
