Article - the impact of 'banding'

Since the start of this year, the nitrogen (N) excretion rate from dairy cows is based on average milk yield - 'banding'. Last year, every dairy cow in the country was assigned a figure of 89 kg N per head. This year, the N excretion rate per cow will be either 80, 92 or 106 kg N depending on the herd's average milk yield. The impact of these changes was checked out on catchment farms as a case study and full details are here in this Teagasc Daily online article.