[Herbage intake of grazing lactating cows]
1982
Meijs, J.A.C. (Instituut voor Veevoedingsonderzoek, Lelystad (Netherlands))
From 1976 to 1979 herbage intake of lactating cows was determined at Lelystad in 123 grazing trials and in 28 stall-feeding trials. The pre-cut swards consisted predominantly of perennial rye-grass. A double sward-sampling technique was used for estimating herbage intake. It was shown that there were no significant effects of higher levels of herbage mass (by taking longer rest periods) on daily intake of organic matter from herbage neither indoors nor at pasture. However, in early summer daily intake of digestible nutrients and milk production decreased at increasing maturity. In late summer these effects were not significant. Higher levels of daily herbage allowance had significant positive effects on daily intake of herbage and on daily milk production per grazing animal. High amounts of residual herbage, resulting from high allowances, had a strong positive effect on net regrowth of herbage. In alternating grazing cutting systems a high allowance may be profitable, both for the intake per animal and for the accumulation and consumption of herbage per unit area. The grazing cows consumed 13.6-14.8 kg/day of organic matter from herbage if no concentrates were fed; at the quality of herbage as used in our trials this allows a daily production of 4% fat-corrected milk of 22-23 kg.
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