The Mid symposium tour included a visit to the ”Forage2015” exhibition, which was organised by the Dutch agri-business (Dutch only).
EGF 2015 participants were shown:
- New dairy buildings of Aeres Praktijcentrum Dronten, with three different dairy farming systems for education and applied research
- The latest developments on grass breeding in the field
- The Dutch grass research centre in Lelystad
- Historic overview and innovations for the future
Part of the historic overview was an exhibition on the history of developments in forage supply in the Netherlands. During the last 50 years, major changes took place in dairy farming in the Netherlands as a consequence of various technical , economic and social developments. The average number of dairy cows per farm increased tenfold to about 85, the average milk production per cow doubled to just over 8,000 kg, the milk production even tripled to over 15,000 kg per ha and the number of dairy farms declined to about 18,000.
The Netherlands Society for Grassland and Fodder Crops thanks Sije Schukking, Henk van Dijk and Rienk van den Berg, for composing this exhibition.
An outline has been included in the presentations of Session 1. The complete [Dutch] version can be seen here: