OasYs, a dairy cattle system based on the diversity of forage resources

Since 2013, the OasYs system experiment has been setting up a low-input dairy cattle system in a drying zone. The main hypothesis is that the diversity of system components and their functions can be a means of reconciling the objectives of production, environmental performance and resilience to climatic hazards. Grasslands and crops were diversified in terms of species, mixtures and production periods, with three rotations distributed across the cropping plan according to their distance from the milking parlour, to give priority to grazing. The diversification of grasslands and the introduction of annual forage dedicated to the difficult seasons of summer, autumn and winter have extended the grazing period. The proportion of grazed forage in the dairy herd's annual diet (50%) is much higher than in conventional dairy systems.