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An evaluation of finishing strategies based on forage and concentrate for cull dairy cows
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2017
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Replacement rate on farms in Southern Ireland has increased from 16 per cent in 1990 to 27 per cent in 2003 or an increase of 0.8 per cent per year (Evans et al., 2004). Cull cow compromise about 38 per cent of all cattle slaughtered at Irish meat factories. Only 23% of total cows slaughtered in 2005 were killed in the first third of the year, 36% in the middle third and 41% killed in the final third, this indicates that there is an influx of unconditioned dairy cows from the milking herd at the end of the cow’s lactation. In Ireland, the average for all cull cow carcass weights is 282kg. This is considerably less than the average for other EU countries. It is especially low when compared to values in major cull cow markets such as France (343kg). The objective of this study was to evaluate four different finishing treatments for cull dairy cows based on grass silage and concentrate.
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- Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 2007
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