Changing towards a seasonal low-input pastoral dairy production system in moutainous regions of Austria - results from pilot farms during reorganisation

Summary

To get informations on pastoral milk production in mountainous regions a research project with six pilot dairy farms (5 organic, 1 low input) was carried out. The farms were supervised during the reorganisation period leading to a seasonal milk production system. Within an observation period of three years a strict annual cycle in milk production and reproduction was implemented on two farms only. Depending on the farm specific conditions and the implementation level of the low-input strategy on average a pasture proportion of 42 % (26 to 61 %) of the total DM intake y-1 could be determined. On four farms, which fed low amounts of supplemental feed during the grazing period, a pasture proportion of 50 % of the total DM intake y-1 was realized in the last project year. With an input of only 470 kg DM concentrate (8 % of DM intake) cow-1 y-1 a milk performance of 5,542 kg with 4.02 % fat and 3.34 % protein was achieved. The results clearly indicate that the full grazing strategy with seasonal calving is feasible for animal health reasons in Austria. Despite the lower milk yield the data based on a federal extension program reveal lower marginal costs and higher production efficiency per unit milk for the four pilot farms in comparison to the average results of the organic and conventional farms.