Effect of Farm Grass Cover at Turnout on the Grazing Management of Spring Calving Dairy Cows

Early spring grazing is an objective for most Irish dairy farmers. If more grass is included in the diet of the cow in early lactation, the profitability of the farm system can be increased. Post turnout, dairy cow feeding management varies with the amount of farm grass cover (FC) available. Experiments on the consequences of different FC at turnout require large resources and all scenarios cannot be accounted for. Consequently, a decision support system, Pâtur’IN (Delaby et al., this volume), was used to describe the effects of various FC at turnout on grazing management in spring