AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO MANAGING NITROGEN ON DAIRY FARMS - EVALUATING FARM PERFORMANCE USING THE DAIRY NITROGEN PLANNER

Nutrient flow in dairy farming involves animal and field components th at are linked by transfers of crops and manure. Connections of the far m to the surrounding environment are created by inputs and outputs of feed, fertilizer, biological Nt fixation, animals and animal products, and nutrient losses to air and water. Because of these linkages among farm components and connections to the environment, an integrated sys tem-level approach would be useful to evaluate farm performance in ter ms of production efficiency and environmental protection goals, The pu rpose of this study was to evaluate dairy farm N flow and management b y comparing farm performance data with reference values from the Dairy Nitrogen Planner (DNP), an integrated animal and field spreadsheet pl anning and evaluation tool. Performance data were from two Pennsylvani a dairies: Farm 1, 109 lactating Holstein cows (Bos taurus), with fora ges produced on 92-ha crop land and supplemental feeds purchased as di rected by nutritional services; Farm 2, 65 lactating cows, with nearly all feeds produced on the Ill-ha crop land and no forage quality anal ysis or ration formulation assistance. Farm performances on Farm 1 and 2, respectively, were (with the difference relative to the DNP projec tion): annual N input, 17450 kg (-5%) and 10670 kg (-10%); milk-N outp ut, 3880 kg (-8%) and 2790 kg (-0.4%); feed-N intake, 20200 kg (-2%) a nd 18820 kg (+1%); and manure N for application, 8550 kg (-14%) and 10 200 kg (+11%), The differences between farm performance and DNP projec tions identified overall farm organization and crop management opportu nities for improved farm system performance on Farm 1, Animal ration b alancing was identified as a priority area for enhancement on Farm 2, with subsequent action to adopt the services of a professional nutriti onist increasing milk production by 20% and decreasing manure N by 10% .