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Comparison of a straw/concentrate mixture with silage as a buffer feed for grazing dairy cows
Author(s) -
ROBERTS D. J.,
KELLY E. F.
Publication year - 1990
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.1365-2494.1990.tb02188.x
Subject(s) - silage , straw , zoology , morning , ice calving , total mixed ration , chemistry , food science , agronomy , biology , lactation , botany , pregnancy , genetics
Over a 24‐week period during the 1986 summer, three groups of January‐ to March‐calving dairy cows were either grazed conventionally (G) or grazed between morning and afternoon milkings and housed overnight and offered grass silage (Si) or a straw/concentrate mixture (St) ad libitum. The straw/concentrate mixture contained proportionately, 0‐33 long barley straw, 0·28 ground barley, 0·12 soya bean meal, 0·25 molaferm and 0·22 minerals. The metabolizable energy (ME) and crude protein (CP) contents of the silage fed in weeks 1‐8 and weeks 9‐24 were 9‐5 and 10 −6 MJ kg MD −1 and 160 and 191 g kg DM −1 respectively. The straw mix had an ME content of 10 −1 MJ kg DM −1 and CP content of 134 g kg DM −1 . Partial storage feeding with silage or a straw/concentrate mixture led to a decrease in estimated herbage DM intake. The feeding of the straw/concentrate mixture increased total DM intake, but the estimated total ME intake was similar for treatments G and St. The intakes (kg DM d −1 ) for treatments G, Si and St were respectively, herbage 11·7,6·8,4·1; total l3·5,13·6,15·0; total ME intake (MJd −1 ) 163, 155, 163. Animal performance was, for treatments G, Si and St respectively: milk yield (kg d −1 ) 19·2, 17·5, 19·1 (s.e.d. 0‐87); milk fat content (g kg −1 ) 36·9, 37·6, 37.1 (s.e.d. 1.22); milk protein content (g kg −1 ) 35·3, 32·9, 33·4 (s.e.d. 0·76).