Abstract:
Previous work has shown that a 50% increase in gross margin per hectare is achievable in dryland pasture-based dairy farming systems when stocking rate is increased from 1.2 to 2.3 cows per hectare and grain concentrate increased from 1.0 to 2.5 tonne/cow.year (Valentine et al. 2000). This finding led to the development of a 3 year program to measure the profitability of several dryland and irrigated dairy farming systems with different stocking rates. Data are reported for the first full year of the program
