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SILAGE AND MILK PRODUCTION, A COMPARISON BETWEEN WILTED AND UNWILTED GRASS SILAGES MADE WITH AND WITHOUT FORMIC ACID
Author(s) -
Castle M. E.,
Watson J. N.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
grass and forage science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.716
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1365-2494
pISSN - 0142-5242
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2494.1970.tb01204.x
Subject(s) - silage , formic acid , wilting , chemistry , butyric acid , zoology , milk production , dry matter , food science , agronomy , biology , biochemistry
Three grass silages, all made in mid‐Jnne from the same herbage, were compared in a 12‐week winter‐feeding experiment with 12 Ayrshire cows. The silages were fed ad lib. with a supplement of moist barley and gronndnut cake. Silage A was made from unwilted berbage with no additive, silage B from identical berbage treated with 1/2 gal of formic acidJton (2.24 L/tonne) of berbage, and silage C from the herbage after wilting for 28 b. the DM contents of silages A, B and C were 20.5, 21.1 and 31.8%, respectively, and the contents of digestible organic matter in the DM were 58.9, 68.8 and 67.8%. Silage and total DM intake were bigbest on the treatment containing silage B. the mean dafly milk yields on the treatments with sflages A, B and C were 35.1, 38.0 and 34.3 Ib (15.9, 17.2 and 15.6 kg), respectively and the solids‐not‐fat (S.N.F.) contents of the milk averaged 8.53, 8.54 and 8.50%. It is concluded tbat silage B, the unwilted silage with formic‐acid additive, was superior to botb the untreated and the wilted silage as a feed for dairy cows.