Chararacteristic of dairy cows pastures in Western Switzerland | Caracteristiques des paturages pour vaches laitieres dans l'ouest de la Suisse
2005
Mosimann, E. (Agroscope RAC Changins, Station federale de recherches agronomiques, Nyon (Switzerland))
From 2000 to 2004, dry-matter mass, sward height and grass digestibility have been measured on 42 pastures. The experimental design consisted in two plots mowed alternatively every 14 days. 88 data sets have been used for determining grass growth rates and sward density. Their classification was based on altitude, thermic level, soil depth and vegetation type. In the most favourable cases, on deep soils in the lowlands, grass growth corresponds to references actually used to determine the surface needed by dairy cows for grazing. In all other cases, grass growth is lower and references have to be adjusted. We could verify that full-grazing is almost impossible during summer on shallow soils in the mild regions. Within this work, it was also possible to calibrate the plate pasture meter used to estimate farm cover. Sward density values according to month and vegetation type are proposed to convert height measurement into herbage mass. Finally, results show how grass digestibility varies during the grazing season.
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