EuroDairy technical workshops on resource efficiency in dairy farming

Workshops were held to discuss, challenge, convey information and synthesise knowledge in a wide forum of participants with an interest in resource efficiency. The aim of the workshops was to focus on new inventions, methods and management practices implementable by farmers.  

The topics covered in the workshops were driven by three criteria; 

1) To cover the main topics on resource efficiency

2) Innovative developments relevant to farmers

3) Farmers experience could provide valuable information to other farmers and professionals in research and development

The workshops took place across Europe with a mixture of presenters – scientists, advisors, industry professionals, and farmers. Each workshop offered a mixture of presentations, discussion and farm visits creating plenty of time to help overcome language constraints. The workshops were delivered in English, German and Portuguese.  Promotion of the workshops occurred via the EuroDairy website, local websites and partner networks. EuroDairy explored various workshop approaches – a conference type forum, in conjunction with a EuroDairy general meeting, and a further two arranged as stand-alone EuroDairy events. 

To exchange knowledge (and collect knowledge gaps) EuroDairy Work Package ‘Resource Use Efficiency’ organized a workshop about Closing the Nutrient Cycle on 24-25 of January 2018 in Vught (The Netherlands). This workshop was organised in collaboration with the 5th EuroDairy General meeting, also held in Vught, The Netherlands. The aim of the workshop was to show and share the Dutch way of closing Nutrient Cycles on dairy farms and to compare it to systems applied in Belgium (Flanders) and Denmark. The second day of the workshop was a meeting with pilot farmers to show and discuss the results of the nutrient performance on their farms.

Water is a scarce resource in many regions of the world, with the problem being worsened by ongoing climate changes. Water is a restricted but important resource for dairy production in many parts of Europe. Sufficient water intake is necessary for the physiological processes in the cow and water is needed to produce forage. In addition, water is used in a large range of processes on the farm.

The main objective of the workshop is to present the most advanced approaches and techniques to face the current and future challenges of this topic and to discuss them between researchers and milk producers.

A EuroDairy workshop on the topic "Potential and challenges of grazing dairy cows in Mid-Europe" was held at Großbarkau close to Kiel in Northern Germany on Thursday 30 August 2018.

The five main questions intensively discussed at the workshop included:

1. Why the revival of grazing dairy cows?
2. What are the obstacles to pasture-based farms in all of the different regions present?
3. What un-answered questions farmers had in respect to grazing?
4. Where are the research gaps?
5. Which support needs pasture from regional decision makers or/and the EU?

Within the EuroDairy project, efficient use of animal feed an important consideration, under the theme of ‘Resource efficiency’. An international workshop was convened in England with the aim of sharing knowledge on how to practically improve feed efficiency on dairy farms.

"Resource efficiency use" was the theme of the EuroDairy Workshop organised on September 13 2017, on the experimental farm of Derval (Pays de la Loire, France).

Work done on the environmental optimisation of the Derval dairy farm, combining automatic milking and grazing, was presented and discussed with a delegation from nine countries.

Topics included nitrogen use efficiency, the carbon footprint of the milk, and the on-farm practices to improve them.

This project has received funding from the European Union`s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 696364.