What are the five dairy farm feeding systems in Australia?

Article Summary:

In Australia, dairy cow feeding systems vary depending on factors such as farm location, climate, infrastructure, feed access and farm goals. There are five dairy farm feeding systems in Australia: Grazing + Low to Moderate Bail, Grazing + High Bail, Grazing + Partial Mixed Ration, Hybrid, and Total Mixed Ration. Pasture.io helps dairy farmers make feeding decisions by providing them with information from feed tests and animal nutritional requirements. This article will cover the above and more.

Why does the Australian dairy industry have so many different feeding systems?

Understanding the feeding system will help your business profit

The Australian dairy industry operates across one of the most diverse climates in the world. That means dairy farmers need to manage their feeding systems according to their region, rainfall, pasture growth, irrigation access, herd requirements and business goals.

Farmers use different feeding systems depending on where their farm is located, how much pasture they can grow, what supplementary feed they can access, and the production needs of their lactating cows. So, if you're a dairy farmer or looking to get into dairy farming in Australia, it's important to understand how these systems differ and what they mean for day-to-day farm management.

What are the three types of dairy feeding systems?

Dairy feeding systems are often discussed broadly in three categories:

Pasture-based systems
Partial mixed ration (PMR)
Total mixed ration (TMR)

Whether your cows graze on concrete or pasture, it is about managing an efficient feeding system

Dairy Australia breaks these down into five feed-system categories to better reflect the range of feeding strategies used on modern Australian dairy farms. These categories apply to how cows are managed during lactation.

This article explains those five systems and when they may or may not be suitable depending on the farm’s location, pasture base, feed access and infrastructure.

What are the five farm feeding systems in the Australian Dairy industry?

The five Dairy Australia feed-system categories are:

The range of feeding systems generally moves from least to most capital-intensive. The least capital-intensive system is Grazing + Low to Moderate Bail where the cows graze a predominantly pasture-based diet. At the other end of the scale, Total Mixed Ration (TMR) can include outlay on land for growing pasture and outlay on concrete and steel for feed pads, housing, and so on. TMR can also include equipment like mixer wagons and harvesting equipment, whereas in the pasture-based systems, the cows do all the harvesting.

Each system has strengths and trade-offs. Dairy farmers need to consider what works best for their land, climate, herd, feed access, labour availability and long-term business goals.

These Australian dairy farm feeding systems all have pros and cons.

Dairy farmers should research the different systems and think about what works best for their farm. Factors to consider include soil type, rainfall, irrigation access, pasture growth, herd genetics, milk production goals, labour, infrastructure, feed prices and access to grain or fodder suppliers.

This may seem like a lot to consider, but dairy farmers adapt their systems all the time based on seasonal conditions, markets, pasture availability and business needs.

Feeding systems are not all that come in different shapes and sizes, here are cows milking on a rotary dairy

1. Grazing + Low to Moderate Bail

The Grazing + Low to Moderate Bail system is the most common dairy feeding system in Tasmania. This is partly due to the climatic conditions that are conducive to growing pasture and the distance from ample fodder growing regions as seen on the mainland of Australia. In this system, cows obtain most of their diet from grazing.

In this type of system, cows graze on grasses and other forages throughout the day and might be fed up to 1.6 tonnes of grain and concentrate in the dairy at milking time throughout lactation.

After being milked in the dairy (or milking parlour), the dairy cattle return to pasture. Conserved forages such as silage or hay may be used when pasture supply is limited.

Grazing + Low to Moderate Bail is defined by the 1.6 tonne annual cap of grain or concentrates fed in the dairy bail.

2. Grazing + High Bail

The Grazing + High Bail feeding system is similar to the Grazing + Low to Moderate Bail dairy farm, except cows are fed more grain or concentrate during milking time in the dairy shed.

The level of grain or concentrate fed in the bail is more significant than 1.6 tonnes of dry matter per cow per year. In this feed system, the livestock grazes pasture all year round, much the same as the Grazing + Low to Moderate Bail system. Conserved forages may also play a role where pasture availability or pasture quality fluctuates.

This is one of the most popular systems farmers operate, according to Dairy Australia. Typically, dairy farmers choose to feed in this dairy feeding system when they have access to nearby grain stores or fodder supplies.

In both the above systems, pasture remains important, but in Grazing + High Bail systems, supplementary feeding provides a larger share of the cow’s nutrient intake. The critical aspect of this higher grain or concentrate feeding is to optimise pasture utilisation. By doing so, the feed conversion efficiency of the dairy cows can produce higher than seen in the Grazing + Low to Moderate Bail system.

3. Grazing + Partial Mixed Ration (PMR)

In a Grazing + Partial Mixed Ration system, cows continue to graze on pasture for most of the year, if not all of the year, while also being fed a PMR on a feed pad.

Dairy Australia defines a mixed ration as “a uniformly mixed combination of forages, grains and other dietary ingredients is prepared in a mixer wagon and delivered via a feed-out facility”.

A PMR system can help stabilise intake and support production when pasture supply or quality changes. It can also give farmers more control over the ration while still allowing cows to harvest pasture.

Grain and concentrates may be included in the mixed ration, but can also be augered into the dairy parlour during milking time, depending on the farm’s infrastructure and feeding strategy.

4. Hybrid

Hybrid systems are usually found where growing grass all year is not feasible. Hybrid systems combine grazing with planned zero-grazing periods. Cows graze when pasture is available or when grazing fits the farm’s goals, but the business strategically switches to fully housed or feed-pad-based feeding during certain seasons, weather conditions or lactation stages.

During these no-grazing phases, the entire diet is supplied as a Total Mixed Ration. When cows return to pasture, their diet may be topped up with PMR or bail-fed grain to maintain balance.

This classification is reserved for farms making proactive, strategic decisions to alternate between grazing and full TMR. It is not intended to describe farms that temporarily remove cows from paddocks only in response to adverse seasonal conditions.

Hybrid systems may suit farms where grazing is valuable at certain times of year, but where seasonal, climatic, infrastructure or production factors mean a fully mixed ration is used for planned periods.

5. Total Mixed Ration (TMR)

A total mixed ration or TMR is the most capital-intensive Australian dairy feeding system classified by zero-grazing, where cows are housed and fed a TMR.

Few farmers practise this system, given the conducive pasture growing conditions in Australia and high input and labour costs.

TMR systems may include infrastructure such as feed pads, housing, feed storage, mixer wagons and feed-out equipment. They may also require careful management of cow comfort, animal health, ration consistency and feed costs.

Which Australian dairy farming feed system is right for me?

The feed system that suits your dairy farm depends on the following:

Farmers need to understand the different feeding systems to plan their business strategy

1. Rainfall distribution and access to irrigation

Without suitable rainfall or irrigation, can you grow pasture all year round?

For example, if summers are hot and dry and cultivars such as ryegrass do not survive, then you might be looking at the systems PMR, Hybrid, and TMR.

However, this depends on the following point.

2. Access to fodder, grains or concentrate

Do you have access to fodder markets and or near grain and concentrate growing regions?

For example, suppose you have access to cheap and nutritious dairy quality feedstuff. In that case, you might benefit from a system of not growing your feed, such as ryegrass pasture or Kikuyu swards.

Much like the point on rainfall and irrigation, this will largely depend on whether you can grow pastures. More often than not, in Australia, pasture-based systems are highly sought after.

3. Dairy cow genetics

Dairy cow genetics plays a role but is not as significant as the factors that you cannot change, such as farm location and region, climatic and environmental conditions, location to supplementary feed, etc.

Large American Holsteins are talked about as not efficient producers in predominantly pasture-based systems due to their size and their impact on the soil. They also demand a higher energy input for maintenance and gestation, which means that each kilogram of dry matter fed needs utilisation.

Large Holsteins can produce a lot of milk and are typically found in housed systems or systems where grazing pasture is not the priority over feed padding.

4. Farm management practices and goals

Once you have covered the above points, you can determine what dairy farm production system works best for you.

For example, if your goal is to be profitable and efficient with land use, then it would make sense to graze as much pasture as possible where rainfall allows this. However, the dairy farm will need to use supplementary feeds if the grazing pastures cannot supply all of your cows' dietary requirements due to either poor growth or a lack of feed.

As a dairy farmer, you might choose grain or concentrate, as these are relatively easy to provide and increase profit margins by increasing milk production per hectare. In this case, PMR would be appropriate given that pasture is not desired over other feed forms.

In saying all of this, do you have the farm management skills to jump from Grazing + Low to Moderate Bail to TMR?

Understanding this will help you know a clean set of goals and a vision for your farm management.

Can I use Pasture.io with any of the five Australian dairy feeding systems?

Pasture.io can help you balance your cows' rations in a pasture-based or feed pad feeding system

If you're wondering if you can use Pasture.io with any of the dairy farming systems, all you need to do is answer these questions:

Is there internet or network connection on your farm?
Do you have a phone, tablet or computer?

If so, then yes! You can use Pasture.io anywhere, and you can use it to make rations for your dairy cows.

You can use the nutrition tools today and find the information you need to make effective feeding decisions. We're committed to serving farmers with an integrated app. Sure, the options are limited if your livestock doesn't graze pasture, but if they do, our tools will help you turn the page with a successful feeding system.

How does Pasture.io feed cows?

Within Pasture.io, you can enter feed tests and animal nutritional requirements. When you are balancing rations, you can see the following elements.

Dry matter (DM)
Neutral detergent fibre (NDF)
Energy (ME)
Crude protein (CP)
Rumen degradable protein (RDP)
Undegradeable protein (UDP), also known as bypass protein or rumen undegradable protein (RUP)
Starch

These are high-level elements that will help you achieve your production goals. When balancing rations, it is always appropriate to consult a ruminant nutritionist. This way, you can ensure that the minerals and vitamins, among other dietary components, are suitable for your production and business goals.

We developed the app to manage pasture measurements for making grazing decisions. All of these systems have in common that farmers, wherever they are, are feeding cows, which is what Pasture.io does.

For years, our online app has helped farmers in the Australian dairy industry find the required rations for their animals. If you would like to do the same, contact us today.

Until we meet again, happy farming!

- The Dedicated Team of Pasture.io, 2026-05-07

Back to Blog