Description
Nicolas Floc is a dairy farmer breeding “Pie Rouge” cows in northern Brittany. His farm covers 60 ha, including 40 ha of grasslands. The herd’s total milk production is 315,000 litres per year. Each cow yearly produces 6,430 litres and is fed 950 kg of concentrates. The grazing area per cow is of 0.38 ha. As the accessible grazing area is limited, the cows can’t graze as much as Nicolas would like. His aim is to keep as much grassland around the barn and maintain a high level of grass production. He therefore wishes to avoid long grass/corn/wheat rotations in the accessible area to renew his grasslands. This led him to try sowing grasslands under a mixture of cereal and protein crops.
Cereals and protein crops are sown using a cereal drill, while grassland is broadcast. The cover is cut for silage in mid-May and the grassland can finally take over. The advantages of this technique are: greater forage production in the first year thanks to the cover, better grassland establishment and the absence of bare soil. What’s more, this practice saves time: grassland and cover are sown at the same time. It is particularly interesting in view of climate change: grassland can be sown under cover until mid-October, whereas grassland alone can only be sown until the end of September. As late summer droughts are becoming increasingly frequent, it is worthwhile sowing later without compromising the establishment of the grassland. The seeding equipment used was “tinkered” by Nicolas, even though there are specific seeders on the market for seeding grassland under cover.
