Cows eat grass, don't they?

Welcome to the website for the project 'Cows Eat Grass, Don't They?'

This is a social sciences research project carried out by Orla Shortall at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen about indoor, high-feed-input and grass-based dairy systems in the UK and Ireland. The project is funded by the British Academy and ran from 2018-2021.

The project involved research with farmers, stakeholders and the public to explore visions of the future of dairy farming in the UK and Ireland.

News

A paper from the Irish interviews has been published in Sustainability. Irish dairy farmers saw good farming as skilled grass production, that included little extra feed but was reliant on fertiliser. There's scope to change the defintion to include include mixed swards.

Posted on: Wednesday, 1 June, 2022

A paper on a survey of Scottish dairy farmer attitudes to grazing and indoor systems has been published. Results showed 68% of respondents agreed cows should graze.

Posted on: Friday, 4 February, 2022

Paper on from the Irish dairy farmer survey study published in Journal of Dairy Science.

Posted on: Monday, 22 November, 2021

A report on the Irish results of the 'Cows eat grass, don't they?' project is available here, and a summary here.
 

Posted on: Wednesday, 7 July, 2021

A report on the UK results of the 'Cows eat grass, don't they?' project is available here, and a summary here.
 

Posted on: Wednesday, 7 July, 2021

Blogs