Tackling the future challenges of Organic Animal Husbandry - vTI

! Agriculture and Forestry Research, Special Issue No 362 (Braunschweig, 2012) ISSN 0376-0723
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Table 1. survey of project farms
134
n farms Cows/farm Daily Milk
Yield (kg)
Average
Number of
lactations
Concentrate (DM) in kg/cow/year
(% of yearly DM ratio)
Group 1 10 18.4 17.4 3.7 278 (4.3%)
Group 2 34 22.8 19.5 3.7 369.7 (5.7%)
Group 3 16 23 21.4 3.6 594.9 (9.2%)
Group 4 9 20.5 16.5 3.6 16.1 1 (0.3%)
All farms 69 21.9 19.3 3.6 362.6 (5.6%)
1 concentrate free farms, but they feed wheat bran, which is included in the definition of concentrate by Bio Suisse regu-
lations
The study was conducted from 2009 to 2011. In the first year (Y0) concentrate feeding, milk recordings,
fertility and veterinary treatments data on farm level have been collected retrospectively
without any changes in feeding management. The second year (Y1) was the transition year to concentrate
minimization and the third year was the investigation year (Y2).
The farms were visited 4 times a year, in winter and summer and during the time of transition feeding
in spring and autumn. During the farm visits body condition (BCS) of all cows was estimated
and all veterinary treatments, the amount of concentrate fed per year on farm level, the quality of
the forage, and the feeding management were registered.
At every farm visit the farmer and the FiBL-adviser discussed the current feeding and herd health
situation and also problems of individual cows in detail considering all available data.
Milk recording data provided by the Swiss breeding associations were analyzed yearly eleven times
and the farmers were given a comment on health status and feeding situation of their herd based on
each milk recording.
Results
Development of concentrate use (kg DM per cow and year)
Group 1 reduced concentrate significantly by about 70% (p< 0.001) or 204 kg DM per cow and
year. Half of the farms reached the goal of concentrate free feeding. Group 2 reduced concentrate
significantly by about 24% (p< 0.01) or 90 kg DM per cow and year. Two thirds of the farms
reached the goal of less than 5% concentrate in the ration (DM). Group 3 was the control group
without changes in feeding management, but there was a reduction of concentrate by 9% or 49 kg
DM per cow and year. Group 4 abstained from wheat bran and reduced to zero concentrate. In average,
all 69 farms significantly reduced the concentrate use by 24% (p