Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T16:12:55.325Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Milk production from diets of silage and dried forage. 2. Effect of ensiling ryegrass cut at two levels of digestibility and given ad libitum with supplements of dried grass pellets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

J. C. Tayler  and
K. Aston
J. C. Tayler
Affiliation:
The Grassland Research Institute, Hurley, Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 SLR
K. Aston
Affiliation:
The Grassland Research Institute, Hurley, Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 SLR
Get access

Summary

1. Young adult and adult British Friesian female cattle (heifers and cows) which were lactating were individually fed ad libitum on ryegrass silage of high (HS) or low (LS) digestibility with one of two levels of a supplement of pellets of dried grass (H or L) in a 2 × 2 factorial experiment with three heifer and seven cow replicates.

2. The percentages of digestible organic matters in the dry matter (DM) in vitro were respectively 64·4, 57·5 and 69·0 for forages HS, LS and and the dried grass. The HS crop, however, was significantly lower in DM content, and after ensiling with formic acid additive had a higher lactic and total acid content than the LS crop.

3. The dry-matter intake of the less acid silage LS was greater than that of HS (P<0·05) although the dry-matter digestibility of the LS diets was on average 6 units lower than the HS diets. The intakes of digestible dry matter (DDM) and digestible organic matter were greater (P<0·05) in mid lactation when HS was fed. DM and DDM intakes were significantly increased by the higher level of feeding of the dried grass supplement.

4. The yield, composition and energy content of milk did not differ between silages but the yield and protein content of the milk increased significantly at the higher level of supplement feeding. The milk yields were respectively 19·35, 17·54, 19·49 and 17·97 ± 0·505 kg/head per day for treatments HSH, HSL, LSH and LSL on these all-grass diets over lactation weeks 4 to 20. Live-weight loss was greater (P<0·01) on the LS diets. Blood composition was normal and did not differ markedly between treatments.

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , October 1976 , pp. 211 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Agricultural Research Council. 1965. The Nutrient Requirements of Farm Livestock. No. 2, Ruminants. Agricultural Research Council, London.Google Scholar
Armstrong, D. G. 1964. Evaluation of artificially dried grass as a source of energy for sheep. II. The energy value of cocksfoot, timothy and two strains of ryegrass at varying stages of maturity. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 62: 399–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broster, W. H. 1970. Feeding over the lactation cycle. In Dairy Nutrition, pp. 47–61. US Feed Grains Council, London.Google Scholar
Crabtree, J. R. 1971. Economic aspects of the inclusion of dried grass in dairy-cow rations. . Br. Grassld Soc. 26: 63–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feekes, W. 1941. De Tarwe en haar milieu. Vers. XVII Tech. Tarwe Comm., Groningen, pp. 560–561.Google Scholar
Green, J. O., Corrall, A. J. and Terry, R. A. 1971. Grass species and varieties. Relationship between stage of growth, yield and forage quality. Tech. Rep. Grassld Res. Inst., No. 8.Google Scholar
Hodgson, J. 1968. The relationship between the digestibility of a sward and the herbage consumption of grazing calves. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 70: 47–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Large, E. C. 1954. Growth stages in cereals. Illustrations of the Feekes Scale. Plant Path. 3: 128–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCarrick, R. B. 1965. Effects of stage of growth and method of herbage conservation on performance of weanling cattle. Ir. J. agric. Res. 4: 161–178.Google Scholar
McLeod, D. S., Wilkins, R. J. and Raymond, W. F. 1970. The voluntary intake by sheep and cattle of silages differing in free-acid content. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 75: 311–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, J. H., Kromann, R. and Garrett, W. N. 1965. Influence of roughage preparation on digestion. In Physiology of Digestion in the Ruminant (ed. Dougherty, R. W.), pp. 262–271. Butterworth, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Payne, J. M., Dew, S. M., Manston, R. and Faulks, M. 1970. The use of a metabolic profile test in dairy herds. Vet. Rec. 87: 150–158.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tayler, J. C. and Aston, K.Milk production from diets of silage and dried forage. 1. Effects of methods of processing dried grass and of including barley in the supplementation of grass silage given ad libitum. Anim. Prod. 23: 197–209.Google Scholar
Tayler, J. C. and Lonsdale, C. R. 1970. Growth of young cattle fed diets containing artificially dried forage. Study Commissions of Animal Nutrition and Cattle Production, EAAP, Gödöllö, Hungary, 1970.Google Scholar
Underwood, E. J. 1966. The Mineral Nutrition of Livestock. Commonwealth Agricultural Bureauz, Farnham Royal, Buckinghamshire.Google Scholar
Wernli, C. 1971. Nutritional studies on feed supplements for grass silage. Ph.D. Thesis, Univ. Reading.Google Scholar
Whitehead, D. C. 1966. Data on the mineral composition of grassland herbage from the Grassland Research Institute, Hurley, and the Welsh Plant Breeding Station, Aberystwyth. Tech. Rep. Grassld Res. Inst. Hurley, No. 4.Google Scholar
Wilkins, R. J., Hutchinson, K. J., Wilson, R. F. and Harris, C. E. 1971. The voluntary intake of silage by sheep. I. Inter-relationships between silage composition and intake. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 77: 531–537.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkins, R. J., Wilson, R. F. and Cook, J. E. 1974. Restrictions of fermentation during ensilage: the nutritive value of silages made with the addition of formaldehyde. Proc. 12th int. Grassld Congr., Moscow. In press.Google Scholar
Wilson, R. F. and Wilkins, R. J. 1973. Formic acid as a silage additive. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 81: 117–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar