scholarly journals Farm-scale nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulfur balances and use efficiencies on Australian dairy farms

2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (10) ◽  
pp. 929 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron J. P. Gourley ◽  
Warwick J. Dougherty ◽  
David M. Weaver ◽  
Sharon R. Aarons ◽  
Ivor M. Awty ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Milk Production ◽  
Nutrient Management ◽  
Nutrient Balance ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Stocking Rate ◽  
Management Decisions ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Farm Scale ◽  
Use Efficiency

Efficient and effective nutrient management decisions are critical to profitable and sustainable milk production on modern Australian dairy farms. Whole-farm nutrient balances are commonly used as nutrient management tools and also for regulatory assessment on dairy farms internationally, but are rarely used in Australia. In this study, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and sulfur (S) imports and exports were measured during a standardised production year on 41 contrasting Australian dairy farms, representing a broad range of geographic locations, milk production, herd and farm size, reliance on irrigation, and soil types. The quantity of nutrients imported varied markedly – with feed and fertiliser generally the most substantial imports – and were principally determined by stocking rate and type of imported feed. Milk exports were the largest source of nutrient exports. Nitrogen balance ranged from 47 to 601 kg N/ha.year. Nitrogen-use efficiency ranged from 14 to 50%, with a median value of 26%. Phosphorus balance ranged from –7 to 133 kg P/ha.year, with a median value of 28 kg P/ha. Phosphorus-use efficiencies ranged from 6 to 158%, with a median value of 35%. Potassium balances ranged from 13 to 452 kg K/ha, with a median value of 74 kg K/ha; K-use efficiency ranged from 9 to 48%, with a median value of 20%. Sulfur balances ranged from –1 to 184 kg S/ha, with a median value of 27 kg S/ha; S-use efficiency ranged from 6 to 110%, with a median value of 21%. Nitrogen, P, K and S balances were all positively correlated (P < 0.001) with stocking rate and milk production per ha. Poor relationship between P, K and S fertiliser inputs and milk production from home-grown pasture reflected the already high soil fertility levels measured on many of these farms. The results from this study demonstrate that increasing milk production per ha will be associated with greater nutrient surpluses at the farm scale, with the potential for greater environmental impacts. We suggest that simplified and standardised nutrient balance methodologies should be used on dairy farms in Australia to help identify opportunities for improvements in nutrient management decisions and to develop appropriate industry benchmarks and targets.

scholarly journals Nutrient Intake, Excretion and Use Efficiency of Grazing Lactating Herds on Commercial Dairy Farms

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 390
Author(s):  
Sharon R. Aarons ◽  
Cameron J. P. Gourley ◽  
J. Mark Powell
Keyword(s):  
Milk Production ◽  
Nutrient Intake ◽  
Nutrient Management ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Nutrient Concentrations ◽  
Feeding Strategies ◽  
Nutrient Excretion ◽  
Dietary Concentration ◽  
Grazing System ◽  
Use Efficiency

Estimating excreted nutrients is important for farm nutrient management, but seldom occurs on commercial grazing system farms due to difficulties in quantifying pasture intake. Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), sulphur (S), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) intake, excretion and use efficiency of 43 commercial dairy herds grazing pasture were calculated to understand the range in nutrient intake and excretion in these systems. Milk production, feed (grazed and supplement), as well as farm and herd management data were collected quarterly on representative farms located in temperate, arid, subtropical and tropical regions of Australia. Lactating herd sizes on these farms averaged 267 (30 to 1350) cows, with an average daily milk yield of 22 (9 to 36) kg/cow per day and the herds walked from <0.01 to 4 km/day on a variety of terrains. The mean total metabolizable energy (ME) required by cows in the herds was estimated to be 195 (116 to 289) MJ/cow per day. Although these farms are considered grazing systems, feeding strategies ranged from total dependence on pasture to total mixed rations (TMRTMR) and consisted of a wide variety of nutrient and energy contents. Mean pasture dry matter intake (DMI) (9 kg/cow per day, from 0.1 to 22 kg/cow per day) was just over half of total DMI. Dietary concentration of crude protein, P, K, S, Ca and Mg concentrations were, on average, 19%, 0.45%, 2.1%, 0.29%, 0.65%, and 0.3%, respectively, for all herds and, except for N, supplement nutrient concentrations were always more variable than pasture. Approximately 72% and 88% of diets provided greater than recommended P and N intakes, respectively. Calculated mean N, P, K, S, Ca and Mg excretions were 433, 61, 341, 44, 92 and 52 g/cow per day, respectively. Of the farm characteristics examined, residual maximum likelihood (REML) analysis indicated that daily excreted N, P and S were significantly related to per ha milk production, and excreted P, K and Mg were related to percentage of herd DMI provided as supplement. Mean use efficiencies by cows of N, P, K, S, Ca and Mg were 21%, 25%, 9%, 16%, 23% and 4%, respectively. These estimates of nutrient excretion and feed nutrient use efficiencies can be used to improve nutrient management on grazing system commercial dairy farms.

Water-use efficiency on irrigated dairy farms in northern Victoria and southern New South Wales

2000 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 643 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. P. Armstrong ◽  
J. E. Knee ◽  
P. T. Doyle ◽  
K. E. Pritchard ◽  
O. A. Gyles
Keyword(s):  
Water Use Efficiency ◽  
Milk Production ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Milk Fat ◽  
Large Range ◽  
New South ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
High Water ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Use Efficiency

A survey of 170 randomly selected, irrigated, dairy farms in northern Victoria and 9 in southern New South Wales was conducted to examine and benchmark the key factors influencing water-use efficiency. Water-use efficiency was defined as the amount of milk (kg milk fat plus protein) produced from pasture per megalitre of water (irrigation plus effective rainfall). Information on water-use, milk production, supplementary feeding, farm size and type, pasture management, and irrigation layout and management was collected for each farm by personal interview for the 1994–95 and 1995–96 seasons. The farms were ranked in the order of water-use efficiency with the average farm compared with the highest and lowest 10% of farms. The range in water-use efficiency was 25–115 kg milk fat plus protein/ML, with the highest 10% averaging 94 kg/ML and the lowest 10% averaging 35 kg/ML. The large range in water-use efficiency indicated potential for substantial improvement on many farms. The high water-use efficiency farms, when compared with the low group: (i) produced a similar amount of milk from less water (387 v. 572 ML) (P<0.05), less land (48 v. 83 ha) (P< 0.05) and a similar number of cows (152 v. 143 cows); (ii) had higher estimated pasture consumption per hectare (11.5 v. 5.5 t DM/ha) (P<0.01) and per megalitre (1.0 v. 0.5 t DM/ML) (P<0.01); (iii) had higher stocking rates (3.2 v. 1.8 cows/ha) (P<0.01); (iv) used higher rates of nitrogen fertiliser (59 v. 18 kg N/ha.year) (P<0.05) and tended to use more phosphorus fertiliser (64 v. 34 kg P/ha.year) (P<0.10); (v) used similar levels of supplementary feed (872 v. 729 kg concentrates/cow); (vi) had higher milk production per cow (396 v. 277 kg fat plus protein) (P<0.05); and (vii) directed a higher proportion of the estimated energy consumed by cows into milk production (53 v. 46%) (P<0.05). The survey data confirmed that irrigated dairy farm systems are complex and variable. For example, the amount of feed brought in from outside the milking area varied from 0 to 74% of the estimated total energy used by a milking herd. There was a large range in the level of supplement input amongst the farms in the high water-use efficiency group, and in the low water-use efficiency group. This indicates that the management of the farming system has a greater impact on the efficiency of water-use on irrigated dairy farms, than the type of system. The data from the survey provide information for individual farms, a measure of the water-use efficiency of the industry, and an indication of the quality of regional land and water resources.

scholarly journals Development Needs of Dairy Farms in Kosovo

2014 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Tiina Kokko ◽  
Kati Partanen ◽  
Hilkka Kämäräinen ◽  
Ardita Jahja-Hoxha ◽  
Jussi Juhola
Keyword(s):  
Milk Production ◽  
Agricultural Education ◽  
Artificial Insemination ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
The Future

The Republic of Kosovo in Western Balkans has raised agriculture as one of its development priorities. Farms are still mainly small and agricultural production poorly developed. Most of the agricultural products in retail stores are imported. The goal of this study was to define development needs of Kosovan dairy farms by observing farm operations. Observations were made in March 2012 by following the work of a farmer in 13 different sized dairy farms. Farmers were also interviewed. The results show that most development needs in milk production are milking hygiene, cleanliness of the milking facility, feeding and heat detecting. For example hoof care and animal welfare were usually at a good level in the observed farms. The size of the observed farms varied between 6 to 115 dairy cows. Milking was done in the smallest farm by hands, ninehad bucket milking system and threepipeline milking system. The observed farms can be classified as semi-commercial and commercial farms which deliver most of their milk to the processor. The main problems in the observed farms were poor milking hygiene and poor cleansing of the milking equipment. This can be also seen from the milk quality of the observed farms: according to somatic cells five farms were in Extra class and 5 in I-class (no information available in 3 farms). In number of bacteria 3 farms were in Extra class, 6 in I-class, 2 in II-class and 1 in III-class (no information available in 1 farm). Especially bucket milking system and in some cases the milking tank seemed to be difficult to clean. In some farms the condition of the milking machine seemed to be poor. The time between calvings was long, on average 432 days. There might be lack of heat detection. Also fertility may be low due to wrong feeding of the cows. The time between calvings was lowest on farms using only natural insemination (396 days) and longest in farms using both natural and artificial insemination (470 days). In farms using only artificial insemination the time between calvings was 444 days. Lactations per cow was on average 3,86. None of the interviewed farmers had agricultural education. An average farm size in Kosovo is about 2,2 hectares of field and about two milking cows. The average milk yield is estimated to be around 2200 kg / year. The biggest problems in milk processors are poor quality of milk and variations in milk received during the year: in summer processors have troubles in using all the milk and in winter the milk production of farms is too low. Only about 10 % of the milk produced is delivered to the processors. The future of agriculture looks bright in Kosovo as all interviewed farmers were willing to develop their farm and saw the future positive. Agricultural advisory (extension) services and the availability of training for farmers play a vital role in improving the basic environment for farming as well as farm profitability.

scholarly journals Impacts of grazing management on hill country pastures: principles and practices

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 203-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mcg King ◽  
G.M. Rennie ◽  
B. Devantier ◽  
C.J. Hoogendoorn
Keyword(s):  
Management Strategy ◽  
Grazing Pressure ◽  
Grazing Management ◽  
Stocking Rate ◽  
Management Decisions ◽  
Hill Country ◽  
Pasture Quality ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Ecological Principles ◽  
Farm Scale

Management of the balance of animal demand and feed supply is the result of a complex set of decisions. These decisions interact and are also variably affected by external drivers, including environmental. In particular, both pasture quantity and quality can be optimised by using appropriate grazing management, including stocking rate, livestock class, etc. In essence: apply sufficient grazing pressure at the appropriate time to maintain pasture covers at a level where the development of grass inflorescences is limited and pasture quality is maximised. The optimal grazing management strategy, however, may be different for each paddock and will change through the season. At a whole-farm scale, grazing management will be a set of trade-offs. Understanding the underlying ecological principles that drive the outcome of these grazing management decisions on pasture performance will have the greatest potential to drive the profitability and sustainability of hill country farms. Keywords: Grazing management, pasture performance, pasture quality, hill country

scholarly journals Efeito do sistema de criação no desempenho técnico e econômico de rebanhos leiteiros

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 1561
Author(s):  
Rodrigo De Andrade Ferrazza ◽  
Marcos Aurelio Lopes ◽  
Fábio Raphael Pascoti Bruhn ◽  
Flavio De Moraes ◽  
Francisval De Melo Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Milk Production ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Dairy Farming ◽  
The State ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Operational Costs ◽  
Husbandry System ◽  
Economic Indexes

This study aimed to investigate the effects of husbandry system on the technical and economic performance of dairy farming. Samples included data from 61 dairy farms from the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, which were collected between 2002 and 2011. Farms were categorized by type-pasture-based (PB), semi-confinement (SC), and confinement (C)-and technical and economic indexes were compared. In general, the results indicated indexes that are higher than the average for Brazilian farms but lower than those in other countries or technological farms in other Brazilian regions. Milk production was mainly determined by farm size rather than by productivity indexes. Components of the total and effective operational costs that were most significant were feeding followed by labor. The comparative analysis indicated that, although C systems have technical indexes that are superior to those of the PB and SC systems, economic performance was independent of the intensification level. Thus, pasture systems are potentially competitive, provided that the producers are efficient.

scholarly journals Issues of Feeding Strategy for Lactating Cows in Vietnamese Smallholder Dairy Farms

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 729
Author(s):  
Nguyen N. Bang ◽  
Nguyen V. Chanh ◽  
Nguyen X. Trach ◽  
Duong N. Khang ◽  
Ben J. Hayes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Milk Production ◽  
Feed Efficiency ◽  
Nutrient Balance ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Net Energy ◽  
Lactating Cows ◽  
Diet Formulation ◽  
Feeding Regimes ◽  
Dietary Nutrient ◽  
Smallholder Dairy Farms

A limited literature suggests relatively simple feeding regimes and diet formulation strategies for dairy cows in Vietnamese smallholder dairy farms (SDFs). This study aimed to classify and compare feeding regimes and nutrient balance for lactating cows between four typical dairy regions (south lowland, south highland, north lowland, and north highland) in Vietnam and evaluate the possibility of systematic dietary imbalance. Eight SDFs from each of the four regions were visited for two adjacent milking periods per farm. For each visit, frequency and methods of feed and water supply to the lactating cows were recorded, and individual fat corrected milk yield (ECM) of lactating cows were calculated from milk yield and fat concentration. The amount of each diet ingredient offered and refused by each lactating group was weighed and sampled for calculation of dry matter intake per cow (DMI) and analysis of nutrient composition in the component offered. PCDairy, a diet formulation computer model, was used to calculate actual and recommended dietary nutrient concentrations and predict potential milk production. Factor analysis, cluster analysis, and ANOVA were applied to determine grouping effects across as well as between regions. Feeding regimes and diets were grouped into three and nine clusters, respectively. Farmers in the same region tended to apply similar diets and feeding regimes. Across regions, only 47% of all SDFs supplied water ad libitum to the cows. The most used roughages including Napier grass, corn silage, fresh corn with cob, and rice straw were all relatively high in neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF), and acid detergent lignin (ADL). The diets in all regions were excessive in crude protein, NDF, ADF, ADL, and most minerals (Ca, P, Mg, K, Na, S, Fe, Zn, Cu, and Mn) but insufficient in net energy and non-fibre carbohydrate. Feed efficiency (1.06 kg FCM/kg DMI) of the diets were sub-optimal. Feeding regimes and dietary nutrient balance of the south lowland SDFs were most problematic. Increasing dietary net energy concentration by increasing the use of starch and fat and decreasing dietary fibre concentration by decreasing the use of Napier grass or rice straw to balance the diets might help improve the milk production and thereby increase feed efficiency.

scholarly journals Effect of husbandry system on the technical and economic performance of dairy cattle

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 1561
Author(s):  
Rodrigo De Andrade Ferrazza ◽  
Marcos Aurelio Lopes ◽  
Fábio Raphael Pascoti Bruhn ◽  
Flavio De Moraes ◽  
Francisval De Melo Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Dairy Cattle ◽  
Milk Production ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
The State ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Operational Costs ◽  
Husbandry System ◽  
Economic Indexes

This study aimed to investigate the effects of husbandry system on the technical and economic performance of dairy farming. Samples included data from 61 dairy farms from the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, which were collected between 2002 and 2011. Farms were categorized by type-pasture-based (PB), semi-confinement (SC), and confinement (C)-and technical and economic indexes were compared. In general, the results indicated indexes that are higher than the average for Brazilian farms but lower than those in other countries or technological farms in other Brazilian regions. Milk production was mainly determined by farm size rather than by productivity indexes. Components of the total and effective operational costs that were most significant were feeding followed by labor. The comparative analysis indicated that, although C systems have technical indexes that are superior to those of the PB and SC systems, economic performance was independent of the intensification level. Thus, pasture systems are potentially competitive, provided that the producers are efficient.

scholarly journals Profitability Development of Dairy Farms in Slovenia

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 150
Author(s):  
Nikolche Jankulovski ◽  
Katerina Bojkovska ◽  
Goran Mihajlovski ◽  
Angelka Jankulovska
Keyword(s):  
Financial Performance ◽  
Milk Production ◽  
National Economy ◽  
Dairy Industry ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Return On Assets ◽  
Significant Factors

The importance of the dairy industry for the regional and national economy is essential. This paper highlights the financial performance and profitable development of dairy farms in Slovenia by examining milk production. In this study, the correlation of variables representing the number of cows, forage area and milk production were found to be very strong with values of R = 0.85; R &ndash; 0.95; R = 0.79. The farm size has an impact on cost ratios, liquidity, return on assets, and debt. The interactions of these significant factors are evaluated as return on investments.

Quantifying dairy farm nutrient fluxes and balances for improved assessment of environmental performance

2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (9) ◽  
pp. 1656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Innocent Rugoho ◽  
Hayden Lewis ◽  
Muhammad Islam ◽  
Andrew McAllister ◽  
Gemma Heemskerk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Nutrient Management ◽  
Dairy Farm ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Production Performance ◽  
Nutrient Fluxes ◽  
Preliminary Evaluation ◽  
Nutrient Inputs ◽  
Management Decisions ◽  
Nutrient Mass Balance

Excess nutrients are challenging the long-term sustainability of grazing-based dairy farming. Whole-farm nutrient-mass balance (NMB) is a well recognised approach to improve on-farm nutrient management decisions. In the present paper, we use a standardised approach for quantifying NMB on grazing-based dairy farms, using a newly developed online tool. Preliminary evaluation, using selected farm data from a previous Australia-wide dairy-farm nutrient study, demonstrated highly comparable estimates of farm area, nutrient fluxes and NMB, with substantial efficiencies in time and sample analysis. Nutrient mass balances were also determined on 16 diverse dairy farms across the five major dairy regions of Victoria, Australia. These results highlighted the importance of purchased feed, fertiliser and milk sales, as major sources of nutrient inputs and outputs, with whole-farm NMB for the 16 dairy farms ranging from 185 to 481 kg/ha for nitrogen, 12–59 kg/ha for phosphorus, 9–244 kg/ha for potassium and –6–55 kg/ha for sulfur. Current industry adoption of the NMB tool has confirmed the benefits of a standardised and efficient collation and processing of readily available farm data to inform nutrient management decisions on commercial dairy farms. We suggest that the standardised assessment of nutrient fluxes, balances and efficiency, as well as feed- and milk-production performance at the whole-farm level, provides dairy farmers, farm advisors and industry and policy analysts with the ability to determine industry-wide goals and improve environmental performance.

scholarly journals Investment funding programs on dairy farms in Hajdú-Bihar County

2018 ◽  
pp. 11-16
Author(s):  
Nándor Csatári ◽  
András Vántus
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Milk Production ◽  
Support System ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Dairy Farming ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Great Role ◽  
Survey Questions ◽  
Funding Program ◽  
Funding Programs

The dairy farming sector needs constant modernization of its buildings, machines and technology in order to maintain its competitiveness and productivity. For the greater scale investments, these companies try to apply for state funds in addition to their own financial sources. Therefore, the investment support system plays a great role by improving the competitiveness and modernity of these farms. In the last 10 years, 7 funding programs were available for dairy farms. In this research, 25 dairy farms were interviewed in Hajdú-Bihar County. The examined farms cover more than 50% of the milk production in Hajdú-Bihar County. The survey questions focused on the investment funding program use of farms between 2007 and 2017 and renewable energy investments including all programs. The results show how many tenders were submitted, how many were successfully evaluated and completed. All farms had at least two successfully evaluated projects. A correlation was found between completed projects by farm size and completed projects. The connection of the modernity index of dairy farms and the completed projects was also shown.

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