Farm-specific development plan: a tool to manage and improve individual dairy farms

Bijeenkomst: EGF2015
Auteur: Kohnen H., Boonen J., Van Vliet G. and Wengler F.
ISBN: 978-9090-289-61-8
Jaar van uitgifte: 2015
Producttype: Paper
Pilot farm networks are very efficient in developing and implementing innovative measures and strategies to improve farm performances. At farm level, their specificities must be considered. A coordination of all actors, i.e. researchers, advisors, farmers and policy makers is essential. During the EU Dairyman project a strategy has been elaborated to establish coherent development plans. This method is applied on the four Luxemburgish commercial monitor farms, which are a part of the ‘Autograssmilk’ EU project with a farm network. Three steps have to be respected: (1) a detailed farm description; (2) a definition of objectives and their corresponding indicators; and (3) an implementation of a strategy, sub-divided into several actions. Farm data were collected and analysed during 2014, so that at the end of the year a specific development plan was elaborated on each farm. Due to the farm-specific approach, for identical farm objectives, concrete actions to reach the goal can differ significantly. Furthermore, the coordination between involved organizations is enhanced. The results were as positive as in the previous project and its seem therefore that they can be replicated. The method can be considered as an appropriate tool to monitor and improve commercial farms.