01.
Balancing pasture feed and barn feed
The challenge is to successfully balance pasture feed and barn feed, ensuring that cows receive sufficient and appropriate nutrients for good milk production.
About the project
The Robot & Weiden? Voor Elkaar! project is an initiative of
NAJK, Netwerk GRONDig and Aeres University of Applied Sciences.
Maintaining grazing
The Netherlands faces a considerable challenge: nitrogen emissions and precipitation must be reduced. Within the dairy farming sector, industry stakeholders are therefore working together on source measures that make a real difference. One of these measures is increased grazing. Robot & Weiden is committed to this!
Why grazing helps
Grazing is not only good for cows and the landscape, but also plays an important role in reducing ammonia emissions. This works in two ways:
- Less manure in the barn: When cows are outside, the barn stays cleaner. Less manure in the barn means less ammonia formation.
- Natural separation of manure and urine: In the pasture, urine penetrates directly into the soil, separated from the manure. Ammonia is only produced when manure and urine mix. This natural separation reduces emissions.
In short: more hours of grazing = less ammonia emissions.
Working together for more grazing
The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality has made funds available to support projects and campaigns that promote grazing. The national government and the dairy sector are jointly taking on this responsibility. Their focus is on:
- Developing knowledge
- Sharing knowledge
- Inspiring and motivating dairy farmers
Sector organisations have committed themselves to actively informing and encouraging their members. Campaigns and projects are a powerful tool for raising awareness of issues surrounding grazing.
Challenges
Reasons that grazing with robots is experienced as hard:
02.
Cow traffic and robot visits
The challenge is to encourage cows to go out to pasture and return to the robots on time. If this is not properly organised, it can lead to a lot of extra work.
03.
Parceling
Parceling that does not provide good opportunities for grazing with robots.
04.
Registration systems
The current registration system for the number of hours of grazing per cow is not suitable for robotic milking and grazing. A modern, more flexible system is lacking. A suitable measurement and/or registration system can provide extra motivation to graze for extra hours or days.
Team
Robot & Grazing? For Eachother! is a collaboration between NAJK, Aeres University of Applied Sciences Dronten and Netwerk GRONDig.
The team consists of:
- Gerjanne van Esveld (project lead, NAJK)
- Roos Roeleveld (project lead, NAJK)
- Milou Peperkamp (project assistent, NAJK) - not on the picture
- Agnes van de Pol (Aeres University of Applied Sciences Dronten)
- Diana Saaman (Netwerk GRONDig)
- Jacob van Ernst (Netwerk GRONDig)
- Yvonne Schilder (Boerenverstand) - not on the picture
News & innovation
Information and background on the project 'Robot&Weiden? Voor Elkaar!' [Robot & Grazing? For Eachother!"]
Swedish Lessons for Dutch Robotic Farmers: Grazing and Technology go hand in hand
Milk flows best when technology and nature work together. With that insight, four Dutch dairy farmers returned from an inspiring study trip to Sweden, organized as part of the project 'Robot & Grazing? We’ve got this!'
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Contact
Dutch Agricultural Youth Contact
Bemuurde Weerd OZ 12
3514 AN Utrecht
The project ‘Robot & Grazing? We’ve got it covered!’ is an initiative of the Working Group Meerweiden and is carried out by NAJK, Aeres University of Applied Sciences, and Network GRONDig.
