P4: Feedbase – Intensive Systems
This project integrates precision agriculture, real-time monitoring of plants and soils, and advanced modelling, to grow more and better forage crops and increase water and land-use efficiency of intensified dairy systems.
Dairy UP’s P4 project involves five areas of work:
- Integrate precision crop nourishment (timing, source, interactions summer-winter forage crops) through digital agriculture (digital soil mapping, digital sampling, decomposed digital data, precision water and N).
- Advanced real-time monitoring of crop development (and its application on forecast/planning and ration formulation).
- Quantify and verify water use efficiency of simple, double and triple forage crop systems.
- Upskill of management practices to produce quality silage.
- New directions in maize research: Brown Mid-Rib corn; genetic improvement of maize for silage; superior starch characteristics; tailoring maize silage to system/animal needs. Data-driven approaches for high quality maize silage: grow maize for quality through detailed nutritional analysis and feed evaluation.
Progress
Project Update (March 2024):
On most Australian dairy farms, the costs associated with feed represent at least half of all expenses associated with producing milk.
Publication (June 2023)
Field and in-silico analysis of harvest index variability in maize silage
P4 Lead/co-ordinator:
Prof. Sergio (Yani) Garcia
Professor of Dairy Science and Dairy UP Program Leader | University of Sydney
Project Team:
- Cameron Clark (CSU)
- Diago Rotilli
- Ian Lean (Scibus)
- Neil Moss (Scibus)
- Jonathan Ojeda
- Rafiq Islam (USyd)