Description
Nicolas Rubin is an organic milk producer in Argentré-du-Plessis, Brittany. He produces 364,000 litres of milk per year with 53 crossbred cows on 52 hectares. The forage system is based on grazing, and to continually optimize it while gradually renewing the pastures, he has implemented rotations with grazable species.
In the first rotation, the pasture is replaced by fodder rape and then fodder beet. These two fodder crops are located in adjacent plots to allow animals to graze them simultaneously. The goal is to take advantage of the energy from the fodder beet and the nitrogen from the fodder rape to balance the winter ration.
In the second rotation, chicory is sown in June after the grassland. It will be grazed during the summer and until the following spring, before sowing maize silage. The objective is to benefit from productive forage in the summer and initiate soil mineralization for maize crop.
These rotations provide grazable resources throughout the year, in both summer and winter. With grass, fodder rape, fodder beet, and chicory, the ration is diversified, and the cows find energy, nitrogen, and minerals in the field. During the grazing period, harvest and distribution costs are zero. Furthermore, fodder beet and chicory are two crops that adapt well to climate change. Fodder beet adjusts its cycle and growth to rainfall, and chicory is a species that thrives in the summer.
