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More milk from the same amount of grass

Dairy farmers produce more milk (up to one litre per cow per day) for very little effort when they focus on the quality of their grass instead of its volume. By choosing forage mixtures with better nutritional characteristics, you can raise your milk production without changing your management practices or increasing the volume of grass you feed your cows. You don’t need more land, you don’t incur more input costs, and you can carry on working the way you always have.
More milk from the same amount of grass

More digestible grasses produce more milk

​The secret to getting more milk per kilogram of grass lies in its level of digestibility. Your herd gains a greater nutritional availability from grasses with improved cell-wall digestibility. This route to more efficient feed conversion is a cost-effective way to intensify your milk production.

When it’s time to renew your sward, look for forage mixtures with better nutritional characteristics. Within our ForageMax© range, for example, you’ll find mixtures containing varieties offering up to 4% better cell-wall digestibility. They let your cows utilize protein and energy more efficiently, giving you up to one litre more milk per cow per day.
As an added benefit, cows that eat more digestible grasses excrete less nitrogen and emit less ammonia. They may improve your sustainability credentials and support compliance with environmental regulations.
How better grass improves your forage and milk yield
All our ForageMax© mixtures contain top-ranking varieties: the varieties with the latest genetics and superior performance. When compiling these mixtures, we focus on varieties with improved digestibility. The raised nutritional quality of these varieties and the availability of proteins, and energy give your herd the ability to produce more milk from the same amount of grass. And all without changing the way you run your farm.
Higher yield with PLUS-grasses: the perfect combination of ryegrass and tall fescue
With our PLUS-grasses, you’re guaranteed a high yield. The PLUS-grasses, collectively known as festulolium, are the genetic combination of perennial ryegrass and tall fescue. They give you the best properties of both species.
PLUS-grasses offer a wide range of benefits. When choosing a mixture with PLUS-grasses, you can achieve up to 25% higher yields compared to perennial ryegrass and tall fescue without losing any quality. Additionally, PLUS-grasses exhibit winter hardiness, good persistence, rapid establishment, and drought tolerance. Drought tolerance is a huge advantage: the deep roots find water when the ground is dry while providing greater absorption of nutrients for improved sustainability.

The right herbs to support sustainability

Our breeding programme focuses on sustainability. We look for plants with better stability and a larger root mass to absorb the nutrients your cow's need. To find species that enrich the soil with nitrogen and minerals, we devote time and effort to legumes and herbs in our breeding programme. In a mixture with grasses, these species contribute to an increased dry-matter output.

A mixture does not need dozens of herbs to be efficient. Including AgritaiN© in our mixtures can significantly reduce the leaching of nitrogen from urine patches without compromising the high quality or milk productivity of your roughage. Since many herb species lack persistency, we create simple mixtures that are both productive and long-lasting.

Improved quality or increased yield? Tips for sward improvement

When your sward is up for renewal, it’s worth spending time to find the right mixture. Think about past performance and how it might affect your choice:

  • Did you produce enough silage for your needs?

  • Was the nutritional quality good enough?

  • Was the plot often wet or very dry?

  • If you often had a silage shortfall, a high-yielding mixture may be the best solution.

  • If you often had a surplus, a mixture with high nutritional quality and excellent digestibility might be better.

  • Or you might want to cover all options with some plots optimised for higher yield and others for digestibility - a strategy that obviously requires a bit more management.

 

Help whenever you need it

Whether you opt for higher yield or improved quality or perhaps a bit of both, you’ll need to think about the list of varieties. To know which varieties and mixtures would be right for your farm, speak to your nearest DLF representative.

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