Ireland are very inefficient grassland managers

Without doubt, Ireland has many of the best dairy farmers in the world and that most dairy farmers have made huge progress in the past few decades, particularly regarding grassland management and breeding.

However on average, based on dairy farming statistics, Irish dairy farmers are very inefficient grassland managers. These statistics indicate that the average concentrate feeding per dairy cow is about 850 kg, average stocking rate per hectare on milking platforms is only 1.8 cows per hectare and that the average Irish dairy farmer utilises only 7.5 tonnes of grass DM per hectare.

It seems reasonable that in a very short period of time it should be possible to increase utilisation to 10 tonnes grass DM per hectare and this would allow a reduction of almost half a tonne of concentrates per cow without loss of milk production at present stocking rates and milk yields. Based on the fact that grazed grass costs about 6 cent/kg DM, silage 15cent/kg DM and concentrates almost 30cent/kg DM, it is obvious that there are major saving to be got by increasing grass production and utilisation.