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Doctoral thesis2025Open access

Grazing at high latitudes : impact of grazing on dairy cows’ performances and enteric methane emissions in Norway and Sweden

Lardy, Quentin

Abstract

The intensification of the dairy industry has led to less reliance on grazing as a primary animal feed source in both Norway and Sweden. The livestock sector is also under considerable societal pressure to reduce its climate footprint. Indeed, enteric methane is an important source of greenhouse gas emissions and there are ongoing investigations to find mitigation strategies. The aim of this thesis was to assess various grazing management systems with different levels of herbage intake in a cow’s diet. Implemented as a collection of four papers, this thesis investigates dairy cows' performances (intake, milk production), behavioural responses, and enteric methane emissions as effects of their consumption of herbage on pasture and grass silage indoors. Two GreenFeed units, both indoors and outdoors, were employed to investigate enteric methane emissions in part-time grazing systems. This thesis highlights that energy corrected milk remains at the same level with a high proportion of herbage intake as compared to indoor feeding during the summer in Norway and Sweden. The implementation of minor changes in grazing management, such as aligning the provision of fresh pasture with the animals' behavioural preferences, yields promising results if grass intake remains the main source of feed, as the enteric methane emissions recorded from cows fed fresh grass on pasture were significantly lower (20-28%) compared to cows fed silage indoors. This underscores the possibility to use grazing as an enteric methane mitigation strategy.

Keywords

behaviour; dairy cow; grazing; pasture; mitigation; herbage intake; beteende; mjölkko; bete; betesmark; minskning; gräsintag

Published in

Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae
2025, number: 2025:5
Publisher: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

SLU Authors

UKÄ Subject classification

Animal and Dairy Science

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.54612/a.1nrmmqm3vh
  • ISBN: 978-91-8046-440-6
  • eISBN: 978-91-8046-490-1

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/132945