A decision tool to help in feed planning on dairy farms

Abstract

This paper describes FeedPlan, a whole-farm feed-planning decision tool for dairy farmers and their advisers. FeedPlan is used to aid in decision making on how to best utilise surplus feed available to animal requirements and how to best fill feed deficits due to an under-supply of home grown feed. This tool has been developed for four pasture growth regions within NSW—North coast, South coast, South west and Central coast. FeedPlan addresses issues of feed planning on dairy farms based on inputs of stock numbers (calculate feed requirements) and base pastures (calculate feed available) to calculate a ‘Preliminary plan’. To offset monthly feed gaps, i.e. feed required is greater than feed available, options for improved pastures and supplements are used. FeedPlan then calculates the ‘Final plan’, which can be reviewed and improved if required. This tool is designed to help in long-term strategic decisions about feed planning over 12 months. A feature of this tool is the modification of monthly pasture growth rates, so scenarios can be tested to investigate the impacts of times of the year when pasture growth is either slow or fast. A case study is presented to illustrate how this new tool can be utilised. FeedPlan is an integral part of the NSW Agriculture ‘Dairy Check’ courses on pasture management.