There are many grazing technologies which have been developed, or are under development, with some of these currently being adopted on grass-based farms.
However, there are some basic grazing technologies which are available a long time, but the uptake has been slow on farms, such as grass measuring; while others are being adopted ahead of research and advisory.
This is according to Dr. Bridget Lynch, University College Dublin (UCD) School of Agriculture and Food Science lecturer, who spoke during one of the series of research seminars taking place in UCD.
The seminar, which was entitled ‘Innovations in grassland technologies’, took place on Wednesday, January 22.
Kicking off her presentation, she said: “There are a number of grazing technologies which are being used already on farms, but there are a lot of blue sky technologies out there that are in development.”
Some examples of those which have been developed include: PastureBase Ireland (PBI) – a grassland management support tool; Nutrient Management Plan (NMP) online; near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) for slurry application; and Fresh Graze – an automated moving fence system.
Technologies being adopted ahead of research and advisory
Bridget explained that there are a number of technologies being adopted quite rapidly and ahead of research and advisory – to combat farm issues such as farm fragmentation, labour shortages, etc.
She commented: “We were interested to find out how farmers were making the decision to go robotic milking; but also, where they accessed the information and how can we better support farmers in robotic milking systems.”
To find out, a UCD and Teagasc study was carried out where a total of 70 farmers – both existing robotic farmers and new entrants – were surveyed in the border midlands and west (BMW) region.
Commenting on the results of the study, she said: “Interestingly, there was varied interaction between farmers and their Teagasc advisors, both in the decision process and afterwards.”
In particular, she said in the decision process – where some farmers made the decision without consulting their Teagasc advisor.
For those with robots, she noted that the support, in relation to cow movement and interpreting reports, wasn’t coming from their Teagasc advisor; but instead it is coming from their robot manufacturer.
Another technology discussed which, again, she said is on the increase in Ireland, but an area where there is very little research done, is zero-grazing.
Zero-grazing she said has been driven by farmers’ drive to maximise grass in the diet, increase the grazing season – particularly in the shoulders of the year – and to help overcome the challenge of farm fragmentation.
“However, there is no independent work being done in the Republic of Ireland on zero-grazing; so we wanted to get an idea on what was happening on farms through a national survey,” she said.
A UCD survey was carried out on zero-grazing farmers across Ireland. A total of 130 farmers were surveyed.
Part of the survey was to develop the knowledge requirements of the farmers with 60% saying ‘the current information that’s available is poor or very poor’.
They felt they need more information in the areas of: cost benefit analysis; cow performance; species that are suitable for sowing in zero-grazing blocks; pre-cutting cover; and acidosis of cows consuming grazed grass, to name a few.
To improve the information available, UCD is now looking at some of these areas as part of the NutriGen Project.
Bridget referred to a 2018 study, which looked at last rotation grass – whereby they compared zero-grazing grass in the autumn with cows grazing in-situ – from the same paddock.
The average cutting yield was just over 2,000kg DM/ha and grass made up 40% of the diet. A spring study is now beginning to mirror this study, with grass making up 70% in this case, explained Bridget.
Ongoing research
Finally, Bridget discussed some of the research which is currently ongoing in UCD. Grass biorefinery is one of these – whereby valuable components are extracted from natural resources, in this case grass.
Also Read: Biorefinery: ‘The potential for farmers to diversify their business in the future’A by-product of this process is press cake, which is currently being fed to animals in UCD Lyons farm under a dairy feeding trial.
“Previous studies have shown a reduction in nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) excretion from dairy cows that consumed press cake, when it substituted grass silage; largely down to a reduction from N and P intake,” explained Bridget.
Other studies include the ongoing work in the area of multi-species swards – where there has been a number of studies completed over the last number of years.
Also Read: Higher lamb growth rate and less worms when grazing multi-species swards“This work continues through the SmartGrass Project, the HeartLand Project and the GreenLamb Project – which is running out of Lyon’s farm – and also the NutriGen Project has some work in it where we are looking at red clover.
“Lots done and lots more to do in the area of diverse pasture species,” Bridget concluded.