Advances in Management of Grazing Dairy Cows for Animal Performance and Product Quality
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal System and Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2020) | Viewed by 52538
Special Issue Editors
Interests: livestock farming systems; dairy production and management; small scale farms; environmental sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In the past, pasture was the main source of forage for dairy cows. In recent decades, especially in developed countries, farmers have progressively converted their farms to confinement systems. However, the use of pasture for dairy cows, even if with peculiar meanings in different territorial contexts, still remains a widespread and important management practice.
Profitable pasture-based systems involve the evaluation of varied and multiples aspects, such as animal genetic resources, nutrient requirements, grazing methods, stocking density, herbage intake, feeding supplementation, and pasture characteristics. These management factors interact with each other in complex ways and are strongly reflected in the production performance, intrinsic and extrinsic quality attributes of the products, animal welfare, environmental sustainability of the activity, as well as on the vegetation dynamics of the pasture.
In recent years, many innovations have been proposed, and new knowledge has been obtained both to develop more effective strategies for grazing cows management and to monitor their effects.
The aim of this Special Issue is to present original research papers that address innovative management approaches for grazing dairy cows' and their consequent implications for milk and cheese production, animal welfare, environmental sustainability of the activity, pasture.
Prof. Stefano Bovolenta
Prof. Mirco Corazzin
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- Keywords: pasture
- dairy cow
- milk quality
- cheese quality
- animal welfare
- environmental sustainability
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