Dairy cow production when supplemented with whole-crop cereal silages in spring and autumn

Abstract

The on-farm milk production, pasture intake and silage intake of cows fed either whole-crop cereal silage or pasture silage as a supplement to pasture was compared in four herds in autumn and two herds in spring during 2002 and 2003. The number of cows per herd ranged from 90 to 270 cows per feeding treatment. Silages were supplemented at rates determined by farmer feed budget. The amount offered ranged from 3 to 6.6 kg DM/cow/ day. Pasture intake estimates ranged from 7.2 to 13.0 kg DM/cow/day. Milksolids (MS) production ranged from 0.93 to 1.61 kg/cow/day in autumn and from 1.33 to 1.98 kg/cow in spring. The feeding of whole-crop cereal silage produced more MS production in two autumn studies compared to feeding pasture silage as a supplement (+0.08 kg/cow/d; P

Twenty-five tonnes of high quality forages annually in Canterbury

“…High per head animal growth indicate the cereal forages were of high quality. When conserved as whole-crop silage and fed as supplements to dairy cows, high milk production was achieved (Stevens et al 2004).…”

“…Cultivar treatments used in 2002/2003and 2003/2004are presented in Table 2. In 2003/2004 Makuru oats was added to the single-graze treatments sown in autumn and all single-graze treatments were spring sown in Rocket triticale for whole-crop silage. Also Warrior Italian…”

“…In addition to these two trials, cereal whole-crop silage from the Winchmore trial and forage pea/triticale silage grown at Lincoln in association with the plot trial was fed to milking cows in autumn. The results from this feeding trial are reported by Stevens et al (2004).…”

Comparing risk for different dairy farm management systems in Taranaki using the Dexcel Whole Farm Model

“…Farmers who aim to achieve high excess return per unit of risk over the longer term should focus on maximizing pasture growth (within acceptable limits for kg N/ha), increase pasture utilisation, aim for longer lactations (Beukes et al 2004), be prepared to pay for off-farm grazing to get pasture covers up in the early part of the season, and buy-in quality supplements when they run out of pasture. Often late summer/autumn appears to be a critical time and feeding quality silage, like whole-crop cereal silage, could result in increased production compared to when grass silage is fed (Stevens et al 2004).…”

Cereal Silage - a review of its use in the South Island

“…Initial interest in cereal silage was fueled by the desire of South Island dairy farmers to obtain a cost-effective high-carbohydrate supplementary feed, which could allow them to increase milk production from the same land area (Fraser et al 2004). At the same time, arable farmers were looking for an alternative to grain crops, due to their decline in real prices (Stevens et al 2004). Arable farmers began growing cereal silage for sale to dairy farmers, and some dairy farmers grew their own, mainly on run-off blocks.…”