Recording of the webinar climate friendly low cost pasture based dairy production on a mixed farm in Northern Germany

Webinar 2 February 2023 at 11h00 CET

Recording of the webinar is available here  and presention of Ralf Loges here

Recent intensification in European dairy production is followed by serious environmental trade-offs questioning sustainability of current confinement production systems. Pasture is considered to be the cheapest forage, however its role in continental milk production is declining rapidly. This is the background for the interdisciplinary project: “Eco-efficient pasture-based milk production” that started 2016 at Kiel University’s research farm Lindhof in Northern Germany. In this project the potentials of a low cost pasture-based milk production based on 100 spring-calving Jerseys and crossbreds is analysed as an alternative to the regional all year indoor feeding system with Holstein Frisians. After a short presentation of the farm and the rotational grazing of grass clover leys, chosen results will presented and compared to typical regional farms in Northern Germany, this includes: Milk and forage yields, forage production costs, feeding costs, N-balance, Nitrate leaching to the ground- water, Green-House-Gas emissions and the product carbon footprint of Milk production. 

The results illustrate the capability of a rotational ley grazing system to provide both a high milk performance per ha combined with low environmental footprints and additionally offer significant yield benefits for the arable crops in the crop rotation.