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The effects of stocking rate in spring, and topping on sward characteristics and dairy cow performance in a poor grass growing season
Author(s) -
FISHER G.E.J.,
ROBERTS D.J.
Publication year - 1995
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.1365-2494.1995.tb02342.x
Subject(s) - pasture , tiller (botany) , grazing , stocking , forage , agronomy , perennial plant , biology , ice calving , zoology , stocking rate , lolium perenne , topping , lactation , pregnancy , genetics
A comparison was made under continuous grazing between applying a high stocking rate in spring (H) to maintain the sward surface height (SSH) of a perennial ryegrass pasture at 5–6 cm and a low stocking rate (L) to maintain SSH at 10–12cm with mechanical topping in mid‐June. The experiment was carried out in the dry season of 1989 and a lack of rainfall markedly affected the treatments and consequently animals were offered supplementary concentrate and forage in July to compensate for reduced grass intake and low SSHs. Treatment H maintained the density of live grass tillers and live: dead tiller ratio in mid‐and late season, compared with the L treatment. The measured interval between defoliation of individual grass tillers was significantly less in the L pasture in samplings taken between 2 May and 29 August. January/February calving cows on the L pasture produced significantly more milk cow −1 with higher concentrations of protein and lactose, but less milk ha −1 compared with cows on the H sward. The results indicate that topping of a laxly grazed sward in drought conditions has no positive effects on sward characteristics or milk production.