Concentrate mixture, grass pellets, fodder beets, or barley as supplements tosilage ad libitum for high-yielding dairy cows on organic farms
Mogensen L; Kristensen T
Abstract In Denmark, organic feeding is typically based on homegrown feed with a highproportion of roughage. Which crop to grow and use as supplementary feed is investigated in thispaper. In three experiments, barley (B) was compared with another type of supplementary feed: aconcentrate mixture (C), grass pellets (G), or fodder beets (F). The concentrate mixture resulted ina higher (P = 0.002) milk yield (25.9 vs. 23.7 kg), a tendency of a lower ( P = 0.07) fat content(4.08 vs. 4.25%), and a higher (P = 0.006) ECM yield (25.7 vs. 24.1 kg) compared to feeding barleyas supplement at the same energy level. Grass pellets resulted in a lower (P = 0.01) milk fatcontent (3.74 vs. 4.07%), a tendency of a lower (P = 0.12) protein content (3.14 vs. 3.23%), but nodifferent milk or ECM yield compared to feeding barley as supplement at the same dry matter level.Fodder beet tended to decrease (P = 0.12) the milk yield (20.7 vs. 22.0 kg), and the ECM yield (P =0.05) was lower (21.5 vs. 22.9 kg) whereas the composition of the milk was unaffected compared tothe total mixed ration with barley.
Keywords Health; Homegrown; Milk yield; Organic feeding; Supplementaryfeed;Dietary-protein concentration; Milk-production; Early lactation;Cattle; Fiber; Performance;Digestion; Passage; Starchy; Level
Acta agriculturae Scandinavica. Section A, Animal science
0906-4702, Volume 53, Issue 4, 2003, Pages 186-196
