Milk production potential in fertilized pastures

Several factors, including pasture fertilization, affect milk production in a pasture, which can generate increases of up to 50% in milk/cow production.

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Brazilian environmental conditions allow the exploitation of milk on pasture all year round, in addition to allowing the exploitation of the high production potential of tropical forage plants. When managed correctly and intensively, it has the potential to supply nutrients for productions close to 12 kg of milk/cow/day without the use of concentrated feed, which results in a low production cost and makes pastures become a natural resource that enables high competitiveness in land use.

Considering that the average potential of tropical pastures is only 8 kg of milk/day, it is observed that intensive pasture management can increase milk production/cow by 50%. However, there are several factors that affect milk production in a pasture. Among them, the dairy ability of the cow, the quality of the pasture, the availability of pasture (forage supply), the forage yield of the pasture (carrying capacity), the grazing system and strategic pasture supplementation can be highlighted.

Given this scenario, we will address some aspects of how improving productivity and use of roughage can affect the economics of milk production.

Stocking rate (TL) is a measure that reflects pasture conditions, mainly its productivity, and is expressed as the number of animals of 450 kg each (animal unit - AU) grazing per unit area, for a given period of time. time. 

However, it is not enough to just think about the animal stocking rate, with animal productivity (kg of milk) per unit area being more important: Productivity/ha (kg of milk/ha/year) = production per animal/year x number of animals/ha. 

In most milk production systems, stocking rates are less than 1,0, which suggests low-productive tropical climate pastures (forages with low productive potential, uncultivated pastures or established on low-fertile soils) or at some stage of degradation (eroded, with termite mounds, with weeds, among others). 

Table 1 shows simulations of how the increase in TL can affect the revenue obtained from the sale of milk on 40-hectare properties intended only for cows in production and dry without supplementation with concentrate and adequately managed pasture in the spring/summer period. in Central Brazil.

Tabela 1. Simulation of the influence of stocking rate on property productivity.

It is worth mentioning that, in this simulation, the four properties would have the same % of lactating cows, with a rate close to the ideal (83%), and productivity per cow achieved with crossbred animals in well-managed pastures; which is not often observed in practice. 

However, when milk producers use technologies that allow increasing TL, it is a sign that they have invested in specialized and competent technical monitoring, which will allow for much more improvements in the herd's productivity and the % of lactating cows in the near future, making the even more productive and economically sustainable property. 

The milk producer must pay attention to another very important aspect, which is the production of milk per hectare/day, fundamental for the economic sustainability of dairy activity and must be a variable rigorously quantified each month. Productions below 10 liters/ha/day are, in most cases, extremely inefficient as this variable depends on the “average” of the herd, the % of lactating cows and, above all, the TL.

Considering the practical management conditions of most farms, the change from a continuous stocking method (continuous grazing) to an intermittent stocking method (rotated grazing) with increasingly shorter periods of pasture use (paddock occupation period) and variable rest depending on climatic conditions and the growth habit of the forage plant (seasons), may promote an increase in TL, which can vary from 15 – 30%.

With the increase in nutrient availability through practices such as plastering, liming and, mainly, fertilization is another strategy to increase the TL to 3 to 5 AU/ha. Taking, for example, the property with TL 0,5 UA/ha (Table 1), if the producer invests in technology to increase the TL to 3 UA/ha, considering the same productivity and % of lactating cows, it would be possible increase the number of cows (120 animals) and also lactating cows (96) by six times and the milk production per month would go from 4.800 to 28.800 liters/month and the gross income would go from R$ 9.456,00 to R$ 56.736,00/month. Furthermore, it is worth noting that productivity would increase from 1.140 to 8.640 liters of milk/ha/year, positively reflecting on the technical and economic sustainability of dairy activity.

To optimize fertilization and obtain concrete results in pasture, Mosaic Fertilizers with the MPasto line has solutions that lead to better persistence, yield and quality for pasture. Thus, increasing productivity in the same area, being able to place more animals, we make the system more profitable and sustainable for the milk producer.

Dr. Vinicius Carreteiro Gomes,
Market Development Specialist