Pasture utilisation in a pastoral automated milking system

Abstract

Over the past 5 years a herd of up to 180 cows has been milked by two automated milking systems (AMS) at the Greenfield Project research farm near Hamilton. The performance parameters pertaining to pasture management and pasture utilisation during the 2004/05 season are described. The 54 ha farm had an estimated net pasture accumulation of 16.2 t DM/ha/yr. The estimated pasture consumption was determined using back calculations to be 12.3 t DM/ha/yr resulting in an estimated efficiency of pasture utilisation of 76% (based on consumed vs. net accumulation). The data presented suggest that it is possible to achieve satisfactory pasture intakes, pasture utilisation and to be able to maintain pasture quality with automatic milking in a low-input, pasture-based system. Keywords: automatic milking, grazing, pasture management, pasture utilisation