Description
Is summer grazing for dairy cows a tool to increase profitability? Martin Johansson, Köinge in south-west Sweden, has 90 organic cows (Swedish Red and Holstein) and 160 ha of arable land, of which 100 ha is temporary grassland. For him, grazing is fundamental to achieve high income per hectare.
In the field, the farmer has large paddocks, which can be divided by a simple electric fence to adjust the size of the paddock to the grass consumption per day. The current aim is to change paddock twice a day during the summer. Martin assesses grass growth by walking the fields once a week to monitor development, and over time he has learnt to estimate the grass cover. He also clips some samples from a 0.5 m × 0.5 m area, to determine herbage biomass and dry matter content.
Strengths of this farming system are an increased profitability with more grazed area and easier work with grazing than with indoor feeding. A weakness is finding other similar farmers with whom to share experiences. Opportunities are a more efficient production and a better work distribution throughout the year by concentrating the calving to autumn. The main threat is a very high dependency on the weather (rain and drought).
