Attitudes of German grazing and non-grazing farmers towards the impact of grazing on milk production

Abstract

Fifty four German dairy farmers answered a questionnaire concerning their attitude towards the impact of grazing on the milk production. Farmers, who provide access to pasture for their cows are not worried, that this could reduce the performance of their cows. This applies to both, grazing farms, where grass still contributes a part to the ration of the cows as well as for farms with highly restricted grazing, where the possible intake of grass is negligible. In contrast to this, farmers with all-year housing assume that grazing would reduce the milk production of cows. We also found that the performance of the cows on grazing farms is significantly lower than the performance of cows on farms with highly restricted grazing or non-grazing farms. Moreover, cows on grazing farms are generally provided with less energ y from maize and concentrates than cows from non-grazing farms and farms with highly restricted grazing. We conclude that farmers with different management systems have different opinions on what they regard as a high milk production. While farmers from grazing farms are content with the milk production they achieve, farmers from non-grazing farms and from farms with highly restricted grazing pursue a higher milk production.