SustAinimal Grazing Living Lab – a survey of grazing management on dairy farms in northern Sweden

ABSTRACT

A survey was conducted on 302 Sweden dairy farms (response rate 98%) to identify grazing and grassland management strategies and main challenges to grazing in northern Sweden. The most common grazing strategy on all dairy farms was continuous grazing (59%) followed by rotational grazing (45%), while organic dairy farms preferentially adopted rotational grazing (69%). The main challenges reported in grazing dairy cows on temporary grasslands on conventional farms were trampling damage and seasonal variations in grass growth, while for organic dairy farmers, the primary challenge was weed control. Only a few farms had grazing on semi-natural grasslands. Future sustainable grazing should focus on optimising grazing strategy in relation to on-farm grazing locations and nutrient supply for high-yielding dairy cows.

KEYWORDS:

• Conventional farm
• dairy cow
• organic farm
• temporary grasslands
• semi-natural grasslands
• pasture
• sustainable production

Acknowledgements

The collaborative network SustAinimal was important in conducting this work. Funding from the Swedish Research Council Formas and Norrmejerier is gratefully acknowledged. We also thank all participating farmers for filling in and returning the questionnaire.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was carried out within the collaborative research centre SustAinimal, funded by the Swedish Research Council Formas (No. 2020-02977), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and Norrmejerier.

Notes on contributors

Anna-Karin Karlsson

Anna-Karin Karlsson is a business development manager at the Department of Agriculture and Food at Research Institutes of Sweden. Before she started that position she worked more than 25 years in the dairy industry with research and development, sustainability and consumer market.

Sophie Julie Krizsan

Sophie Julie Krizsan - Professor at the Department of Agricultural Sciences at Inland Norway University. SK has her expertise in both applied and basic research of dairy cow production responses and feed evaluation for cattle. SK has been involved and coordinated several, both in vitro and in vivo studies of ruminant feed evaluation, and including developing procedures for ruminant nutritional studies.

Nilla Nilsdotter-Linde

Nilla Nilsdotter-Linde is a lecturer and a recognised researcher in forage production and management, and grazing at the Department of Crop Production Ecology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala. Her research interests include species and varieties suitable for grazing and forage mixtures to improve the sustainability, productivity, and nutrient value for ruminants in a changing climate. She is involved in several trans-disciplinary projects nationally and internationally, and works closely with different stakeholders in the agricultural sector.