Location
Knowledge Transfer Centre CRAW-Liroux
Early sixties, Walloon Agricultural Research Center (CRAW) focuses a significant part of its researches and development activities on animal productions analysis. In this context, CRAW-Liroux, the experimental dairy farm of the CRAW, allows to explore innovative management strategies in order to improve dairy sector performances from an economical but also from an environmental or social point of view.
During these last ten years, the approaches performed in CRAW-Liroux focus on (1) the development of milk indicators aiming to adjust animal nutrition in order to reduce their environmental impact (milk urea, to adjust nitrogen feeding, or milk indicator of methane emissions); (2) the exploration of local protein/energy resources in order to increase farm protein/forage autonomy (lupin, pea seeds, lupin/maize silage, whole crop silage); (3) the improvement of dairy system management (ranking of mastisis risk factors, definition of the impact of organic fertiliser fraction on nitrogen leaching risk, optimization of dairy cow grazing systems (leader-follower system). The final objective is to improve the sustainability of dairy production.
Yearly, we participate in the supervision of students and work.
Contact
Virginie Decruyenaere
www.cra.wallonie.be