Hokkaido produces 56% of the total raw milk in Japan and plays an important role as a raw milk production area, but the labor shortage is remarkable. In addition, the number of cows raised per dairy farming (about 140) continues to increase, and hence effective utilization of livestock excrement and recycling it as a resource has become a challenge.
Therefore, in the Division of Dairy Production Research, we are further promoting the production and utilization of self-sufficient feed through farming cooperation, and development of dairy technology that can improve profitability and also be labor saving and environmental friendly. The technologies developed so far include ear corn silage production and utilization technology for self-sufficient concentrates, compost preparation technology using ear corn harvest residues, smart breeding technology for forage crops. Also we have developed grassland weed discrimination technology using drones, feed production history management technology, technology to forecast individual cow milk yield, and identification / behavior measurement programs for individual cow, etc.
Currently, based on these, for the realization of highly profitable and environmentally friendly dairy farming, we are developing breeding of feed crop varieties with useful traits, labor-saving feed production technology utilizing image data of forage crops and robot agricultural machinery, a smart feeding management system that utilizes dairy cow feeding management data, and conducting research for the production of characteristic raw milk and dairy products using self-sufficient feed.
(Combined Use for Grazing after Removal of First Grass)
