Description
Grassland plots are not always convenient for grazing, especially with dairy cows. Sometimes there is not enough grazing area near the milking building. This is the problem the farm GAEC Arazon has encountered when it has been created. Resulting from the merging of two organic farms in 2007, the new partners found themselves in a quite common situation: one of the sites was very well adapted to host the new herd during winter but did not have enough pasture areas nearby to allow a 100% grazed-grass ration in spring and summer. The second site is surrounded by 40 ha of easily accessible grassland, but the building was old and unsuitable for the new herd. Farmers wanted to be able to feed animals only through grazing for the longest time possible.
Then, the choice was made to find a way to move the milking parlor from one site to another rather than rebuilding a new one, in order to limit the investments.
Each site therefore has a parlor of its own, but the equipment (pipes, pumps, tanks) necessary for milking are removable and movable. The investment in this facility was similar to one for a conventional milking parlor.
Every April, all dairy cows and milking equipment are moved to the summer site in one day. The cows then are fed with a 100% grass-grazed ration. They come back to the other site for winter during November.
This system has the advantage of being relatively economical compared to a construction of a new building. The trigger for innovation is the strong will of farmers to have a 100% organic forage ration. Without this requirement, the winter building could have been used as it was but with forage supplementation.
