Kennisloket: Biodiversiteit Beweidingsveld (locatie 1) Dairy Campus

Biodiversity

Biodiversity on the dairy farm is one of the cornerstones of Dairy Campus. We look for ways to help increase biodiversity by experimenting with new measures at the farm level and in the wider surroundings. The studies we undertake, which are both scientific and practical, provide new knowledge and data for the whole of the dairy supply chain.

These days, there is more to running a modern dairy farm than simply milking cows. Biodiversity is playing an ever more important role in the dairy supply chain. This subject not only figures high on the livestock sector's agenda but also on that of society in general. After all, biodiversity is under pressure worldwide. This pressure comes from an accumulation of factors such as climate change, upscaling and intensification of agriculture, urbanisation, expansion of infrastructure and increasing welfare. Some of the reduction in biodiversity is caused by increases in scale and monocultures, but fertilisation and the use of crop protection products in agriculture also play a role. But that same agriculture has also been helping to increase biodiversity in recent years with measures such as incorporating landscape elements, field margins and botanical grassland management into farm operations, all of which help to maintain or increase the range of species.  

Exploring ways to increase biodiversity 

Over the past few years, Dairy Campus has been investigating ways to increase biodiversity both in the sector in general and, specifically, at the innovation centre. The Dutch dairy sector wants to be a world leader in the production of healthy, sustainable feed while at the same time preserving and protecting the landscape, nature and biodiversity. To achieve this, it has set ambitious goals for improving soil fertility, reducing greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions and improving and benefiting from biodiversity.  

Dairy Campus focuses on the following subjects within the theme of biodiversity:

  • Experimenting with botanic grassland management

  • Optimising the use and management of herb-rich grassland

  • Making use of high-tech and biodiversity, such as drones, wide working widths and permanent traffic lanes

  • Creating added value for products in which biodiversity aspects play a role

  • Partially extensivising farmland to create space for biodiversity and making optimum, effective and sustainable use of the remaining hectares for production using GPS, drones and high-tech

At Dairy Campus we collaborate on integral solutions that help to improve biodiversity.  

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