Forage Production and Feeding Management in Hungarian Large-Scale Dairy Farms

Abstract

In this paper, 4 typical dairy farms were surveyed and the characteristics of the Hungarian dairy farming system and feed problems were analyzed. Due to the large-scale production system of dairy farming in Hungary, individual operations are performed by specialists, resulting in a very high efficiency, as seen in milking work. However, in terms of coordination among the individual operations, the method is not efficient and lacks consistency as a technical system of milk production. As a result, there has been a decline in technical standards, such as prolonged calving intervals. Close coordination among individual work processes could be achieved through labor management. The major problem is that because of the large scale, feed production and feeding management in dairy production are entrusted to different departments, which is inevitable in the management of large-scale farms. Also, because of the diversification of farming among departments, manure treatment has not been a problem in spite of the large size of the farms. However, the lack of coordination in the activities of the feeding department and the feed production department hinders the development of feeding management and feed production technologies. This aspect appears to be the major constraint in the production system of Hungary′s dairy industry, as exemplified by the feed ratio problems, including the insufficient improvement of the quality of roughage and the increase in the use of concentrate rations.