Description
The feeding of dairy cows at pasture presents many technical, economic and environmental advantages, while benefiting from a very favourable image. However, the management of grazed land is a complex game of strategy in which the farmer applies decisions in order to manage two unstable and uncertain fluxes of change: growth of grass and intake of the herd. Many tools (platemeter, etc.) and overall methods (local stocking rate references, farm cover, etc.) have been developed as aids to grazing management. Nevertheless, few decision-support systems are currently available that make it possible to anticipate and assess the consequences of a given decision in a dynamic way (Peyraud et al., 2004). The objective of this article is to present the structure and functions of Pâtur' IN, a software tool designed to help the management of dairy cow grazing.
Included in
Agricultural Science Commons, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons, Plant Biology Commons, Plant Pathology Commons, Soil Science Commons, Weed Science Commons
Pâtur’In: A User-Friendly Software Tool to Assist Dairy Cow Grazing Management
The feeding of dairy cows at pasture presents many technical, economic and environmental advantages, while benefiting from a very favourable image. However, the management of grazed land is a complex game of strategy in which the farmer applies decisions in order to manage two unstable and uncertain fluxes of change: growth of grass and intake of the herd. Many tools (platemeter, etc.) and overall methods (local stocking rate references, farm cover, etc.) have been developed as aids to grazing management. Nevertheless, few decision-support systems are currently available that make it possible to anticipate and assess the consequences of a given decision in a dynamic way (Peyraud et al., 2004). The objective of this article is to present the structure and functions of Pâtur' IN, a software tool designed to help the management of dairy cow grazing.
