# In a Changing World—An Economical Comparison Between Traditional and Wet-And-Drought-Resistant Grasses in Swedish Cattle Production Under Different Weather Scenarios

## TL;DR

This study compares the profitability of traditional and drought-resistant grasses for cattle in Sweden under different weather conditions to help farmers adapt to climate change.

## Contribution

The study introduces a novel economic comparison of grass species under varying climate scenarios for Swedish cattle production.

## Key findings

- Timothy grass outperformed tall fescue for dairy cows in most scenarios.
- Reed canary grass was consistently superior for beef cows compared to other grasses.
- Weather conditions significantly influenced the profitability of different grass species for beef bulls.

## Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare profitability when feeding silages of different grass species to investigate if animal production or cost of silage is most important for profitability in production with cattle. Contribution margin calculations was conducted for three different geographical regions in Sweden for enterprises with either dairy cows, beef breed bulls, or beef suckler cows. Calculations were conducted for three different weather scenarios with either normal, delayed harvest due to wet weather conditions, or drought conditions. Even if there was less yield of grass of timothy, it was superior to tall fescue fed to dairy cows. For beef breed bulls, it depended on weather conditions if meadow fescue or tall fescue was the best choice. Reed canary grass fed to pregnant beef cows was always superior to festulolium and a mix of meadow fescue—timothy. The result from this study is of importance to farmers’ decision-making in a changing climate.

This study compared the profitability when feeding silages of different grass species in enterprises with either dairy cows, beef breed bulls, or beef suckler cows. Traditional (TR) grasses timothy and meadow fescue was compared to the alternative wet-and-drought-resistant (WD) grasses tall fescue, festulolium, and reed canary grass in three different weather scenarios with either normal conditions (Ref), delayed late harvest time due to wet weather conditions (Wet), or decreased grass yield due to dry weather conditions (Dry). Contribution margin calculation was conducted for three geographical regions in Sweden. In the Ref and Wet scenarios, TR was more competitive than WD for dairy cows and beef bulls in all regions. Also in the Dry scenario, TR was more competitive than WD for dairy cows, as the lower production cost of the WD was outweighed by a lower milk yield of cows fed WD compared to cows fed TR. Contrary, for beef bulls, WD gave a higher contribution margin than TR did in the Dry scenario, where the break-even for WD being superior over TR occurred when more than every second year was dry. WD reed canary grass was always more competitive than TR and WD festulolium for beef cows.