In order to produce high quality forages, the species composition of the grass sward is of special importance. A good measure for estimating the quality of grass swards is
the so-called mean Futterwertzahl of the sward by Klapp (1965) which is further referred to as Sward Quality Index (SQI). On 56 organic farms the average SQI of the farm has been calculated and the yield proportion of different species of the sward has been calculated for different regions of Northwest Germany. Within 22 organic farms
with grassland farming exclusively, a comparison of the milk yields (kg ECM/cow and year) and the mean SQI of the grassland has been calculated with special regard to
the concentrate rates fed to the cows. In tendency the results show lower SQI in farms with lower milk yields in comparison to farms with higher SQI. However, the
evaluations show high variations, indicating, that other factors (management, animal health problems, cutting dates and forage quality factors) might have influenced the
result
