ProtaPlus: more milk from forage

Two years ago, Barenbrug introduced ProtaPlus: a mixture of annual ryegrass with clovers. The reason behind the launch was the huge need for home-grown protein, to avoid purchasing expensive concentrates and to produce more milk from forage. The ProtaPlus mixture has now been used on many farms in Europe and results from practice show what ProtaPlus can bring on your farm.

 

More leaves, less stems

The combination of grass with clover gives many advantages. The clover varieties used in ProtaPlus are very late flowering and grow well along with the grasses. Their large leaves are full of protein and the clovers supply plenty of nitrogen ,which benefits the grasses. The grasses continue growing leaf, without any stems.

 

 

 

Improved forage quality

Forage analyses from farms reveal the difference in quality between ProtaPlus and pure annual ryegrass. It appears that ProtaPlus contains much more crude protein (in average +34%), and less crude fibre and NDF. This results in more favourable values for digestibility and energy for milk production (RFV, UFL). It can be concluded that ProtaPlus, a mixture of grass and clover, is outstanding in forage quality – leading to lower costs and more milk per hectare.

Results from farm trials in Portugal, 2014/2015. Provided by Lusosem in cooperation with Agrária de Coimbra Superior School.