Assessing on-farm pasture availability and forage quality for dairy feed planning

View the project final report

• 2006 annual report

Commodities

• Animal Products: dairy

Practices

• Animal Production: animal protection and health, feed/forage, pasture fertility

Feed planning on pasture is an important management strategy for improving profitability for pasture-based dairy farms; yet, little on-farm information is available on pasture productivity and forage quality that can be used for planning purposes. There are four overall objectives of this project: 1) to collect additional quantitative information on pasture production and quality for a various soil types and species mixtures in Vermont; 2) to evaluate a method of on-farm record-based assessments as a way to estimated pasture yield and availability as compared to more intensive hand sampling; 3) to demonstrate how farmers can collect their own data using daily record keeping and turn that data into feed planning information; and 4) to evaluate and demonstrate the impact of legume content on forage availability and quality through the grazing season by comparing frost-seeded clovers to the existing pasture. Working with two farms in the Champlain Valley of Vermont, this project will collect on-farm data on pasture yield, quality and botanical composition through the 2006 season. Dry matter yield, forage quality, and profitability of pastures frost seeded to legumes will be compared to similar pastures not receiving this treatment. Data collected from the two farms will be posted on the Vermont Crops and Soils Homepage and also presented at pasture field meetings and winter conferences.

The last data collected and reported in detail on pasture growth in Vermont was from one of the early SARE projects conducted by Bill Murphy (Murphy, 1994). With our proposed project, we will be able to include to that data base additional quantitative information on pasture production and quality for a variety of soil types and species mixtures.

We will also be able to compare a method of on-farm record-based assessments as a way to estimated pasture yield and availability as compared to more intensive hand sampling (that is usually too labor intensive not only for farmers but also Extension and NRCS personnel). One of our outreach objectives is to demonstrate how farmers can collect their own data using daily record keeping and turn that data into feed planning information. A future outcome of this project will be to coordinate with NRCS as they collect on-farm records from pasture-based farms enrolled in the Grassland Reserve Program and use that data to develop a pasture productivity database based on soil type and species composition.

Another objective of this proposal is to evaluate and demonstrate the impact of legume content on forage availability and quality through the grazing season by comparing frost-seeded clovers to the existing pasture. We will also estimate any economic gain of this practice to the farms.