Maximum grass intake is a critical component to efficient dairy cow output in terms of milk production and reproductive performance. Of recent concern is the very poor reproductive performance of high genetic merit dairy cows. Due to very conflicting reports and a general confusion, a topical question is "what is the average daily grass intake capacity of cows in the dairy herd?"

It is important for Irish dairy farmers to realise the grass intake capacity, so that cows are not underfed thus leading to poor performance. This is especially so as cow genetic merit and milk output, thus, cow nutrient requirement, increase. A conference was organised by the Irish Grain and Feed Association with researchers at Teagasc, Moorepark to cover these issues. The conference title was "The production of high quality milk from grass and other feeds".

It gave a comprehensive review of Moorepark research, focusing on the type of cow, production systems, grassland management, supplementation and winter nutrition. This bulletin covers aspects of the conference, but primarily focuses on, scientific evidence available on the grass intake of dairy cows, as well as, summarising recent research on high genetic merit cows and strategies for feeding them.