Pre-Workshop Tour
Saturday, June 2, 13.30–18.30 — dairy farms
Description of the farms
Farm 1 located in Władysławów
Number of dairy cows: 32
The first farm is located in the north-western part of Lublin province (Wysoczyzna Żelechowska), in Władysławów. The total farm area is 40 hectares. Milk production is based on 32 cows of Holstein-Friesian breed using a pipeline milking system. The average milk yield for a single dairy cow per lactation period is 8331 kg.
Farm 2 located in Żeszczynka near Wisznice
The farm is involved in intensive dairy production
Number of dairy cows: 100
Fully mechanised free-stall barn: 2 automatic milking machines, automatic feed pusher, computer-assisted herd management system
Milk yield in the region of 8 to 9 thousand kg of milk per lactation
Feeding based on the PMR system; full-ration feed provided at the feeding station
19.00– … - Evening Dinner in local restaurant (not included in the fee — EUR 30–50 paid on site)
Workshop Meeting
Workshop A: Innovations in grazing
Sunday, June 3, 9.00–17.00 (location: Room 2, Congress Centre)
Programme:
Introduction (9.00 – 9.45)
- Welcome and introduction of participants
- Overview of grazing in Europe in 2011 and innovations in grazing. Agnes van den Pol-van Dasselaar, Wageningen UR Livestock Research, the Netherlands
Technical support (9.45 – 11.00)
- Concept of mobile automatic system and first results at grazing. Isabelle Dufrasne, University of Liège, Belgium
- Mobile milking program in Trévarez: challenging land fragmentation. Valerie Brocard, Institut d’Elevage, France
- Estimating pastoral grass intake by use of accelerometers. Frank Oudshoorn, Aarhus University, Denmark
Coffee and discussion (11.00 – 11.30) — tea/coffee will be served near Room 2
- What additional technical support is needed?
Decision support tools for farmers (11.30–12.30)
- Guidelines and tools to get the most from grazing in Ireland. Deirdre Hennessy, Teagasc, Ireland
- Decision Support Tools for grazing. Bert Philipsen, Wageningen UR Livestock Research, the Netherlands
Lunch (12.30 – 14.00) — location: Canteen of Catholic University of Lublin
Novelties in grazing management (14.00 – 15.45)
- Grazing in Poland. Piotr Goliński, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poland
- Enhanced winter grazing linked with the use of out-wintering pads. Jean-Pierre Farrié, Institut de l’Elevage, France
- Grazing in Spain. Rosa Mosquera-Losada, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain
- Comparison of dairy farming systems: indoor feeding versus pasture-based feeding – a case study. Pius Hofstetter, Vocational Education and Training Centre for Nature and Nutrition, Switzerland
- Innovative design of pasture based farm systems. Paul Galama, Wageningen UR Livestock Research, the Netherlands
Coffee and discussion (15.45 – 16.15) - tea/coffee will be served near Room 2
- How to use innovations in grazing to support farmers in their grazing management
Innovative approaches in knowledge transfer (16.15 – 17.00)
- Innovative and sustainable systems combining automatic milking and precision grazing. Bernadette O’Brien, Teagasc, Ireland
- Final discussion and evaluation of the meeting
Information: Agnes van den Pol-van Dasselaar (agnes.vandenpol@wur.nl)
There is increasing demand from the general public in European countries for farm systems in which animals can display their natural behaviour, and grazing is an important aspect of such behaviour. In addition to animal welfare, a landscape with grazing cattle is highly appreciated by society in general. Grazing can substantially contribute to the biodiversity of the landscape which is also highly valued by society. However, current trends in livestock farming in Europe have resulted in a decline in the popularity of grazing. Recent data on the popularity and occurrence of grazing across Europe will be presented during the workshop. The main part of the workshop will be dedicated to discuss innovations to support grazing. Several categories of innovations can be considered including technical support, such as GPS or mobile automated milking systems to enable the use of remote areas for grazing; novelties in grazing management such as relatively simple grazing systems for large herds; decision support models for farmers, e.g. for grazing on a day-to-day basis; approaches to stimulate grazing in general, e.g. innovative approaches in knowledge transfer.
If you want to contribute by presenting results or views please inform Agnes van den Pol-van Dasselaar (agnes.vandenpol@wur.nl). Please do so before 31 March 2012, to give us the opportunity to detail the program properly. Also if you want to participate without presenting please inform us. Participation will be restricted to 50 persons.
Workshop B: How to estimate and to improve the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles of a commercial dairy farm?
Sunday, June 3, 9.00–17.00 (location: Room 3, Congress Centre)
12.30–14.00 – lunch break (location: Canteen of Catholic University of Lublin)
Information: Sjaak Conijn (sjaak.conijn@wur.nl)
The workshop B will be organized by the EGF-working group ‘Dairy farming systems and environment’, the EGF-working group ‘Grassland resowing and grass-arable rotations’ and the Interreg NWE project DAIRYMAN (http://www.interregdairyman.eu)
On Saturday afternoon (2 June), together with the participants of Workshop A, we will visit some dairy farms and have dinner together. On Sunday (3 June), from 9.00 to 17.00 hours, we discuss how to estimate and to improve (parts of) the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles of commercial dairy farms.
Pollution with N– and P-compounds by dairy farms is the result of losses from the nutrient cycles. How are these cycles and related losses estimated in the different countries, using only data that are available on commercial farms? What are the results? What are the possibilities for improvements of cycling? Items to be addressed could be:
- feed consumption (fresh grass, silages, concentrates)
- excretion (total, indoors, outdoors)
- crop yields (grassland, forage crops)
- ammonia volatilisation (total, indoors, outdoors)
- N-fixation by leguminoses (clovers)
- atmospheric deposition
- soil surplus, leaching of nitrate/phosphor, denitrification, emission of nitrogen oxides (N2O, NOx), erosion, accumulation/depletion in the soil
- recovery of fertilisers (output as yield/inputs as fertilisers)
If you want to contribute by presenting results or views please inform Sjaak Conijn (sjaak.conijn@wur.nl) or Frans Aarts (frans.aarts@wur.nl). Please do so before 15 April 2012, to give us the opportunity to detail the program properly. Also if you want to participate without presenting please inform us. Participation will be restricted to 50 persons.
Workshop C: Meeting on grassland production in Europe (invited participants only)
Sunday, June 3, 15.00–17.00 (location: Room 4, Congress Centre)
Information: Willy Kessler (willy.kessler@art.admin.ch)
Workshop D: EGF Resolution on CAP reform (invited participants only)
Monday, June 4, 14.30–16.30 (location: Room 2, Congress Centre)
Information: Willy Kessler (willy.kessler@art.admin.ch)
Workshop E: Semi-natural grassland
Tuesday, June 5, 10.45–12.15 (location: Room 4, Congress Centre)
Information: Bettina Tonn (bettina.tonn@agr.uni-goettingen.de)