Open AccessReplacing grass silage with pea-barley intercrop silage in the feeding of the dairy cow
Author(s) -
Pirjo Pursiainen,
Mikko Tuori
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
agricultural and food science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.347
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1795-1895
pISSN - 1459-6067
DOI - 10.2137/145960606779216281
Subject(s) - silage , dry matter , latin square , zoology , fermentation , biology , agronomy , chemistry , food science , rumen
The effect of replacing wilted grass silage (GS) with pea-barley intercrop silage (PBS) on feed intake, diet digestibility and milk production was studied with 8 multiparous Ayrshire-cows in a replicated 4 × 4 Latin square experiment. Proportion of PBS was 0 (PBS0), 33 (PBS33), 67 (PBS67) or 100 (PBS100) % of silage dry matter (DM). The DM content was 559 and 255 g kg-1 for GS and PBS. Crude protein content was 131 and 170 g kg-1 DM, respectively. Pea-barley silage was more extensively fermented than GS with total fermentation acid content of 120 vs. 12 g kg-1 DM. Silage was fed for ad libitum intake and supplemented with on the average 13 kg concentrate per day. Silage DM intake was 9.2 (PBS0), 9.7 (PBS33), 9.0 (PBS67) and 7.1 (PBS100) kg per day (Pquadr. < 0.05). The energy corrected milk yield [30.3 (PBS0), 29.8 (PBS33), 30.3 (PBS67), 31.3 (PBS100) kg per day] was not significantly affected by the treatment. Milk protein concentration decreased linearly (P < 0.05) in response to feeding PBS. It is concluded that PBS can replace up to two thirds of wilted, moderate quality GS in the feeding of dairy cows because in this experiment pure pea-barley silage reduced silage intake.