Dairy cows fed on tropical legume forages: effects on milk yield, nutrients use efficiency and profitability

Abstract

Two trials with multiparous dairy cows were conducted. Experiment 1 tested the effects of increasing forage proportion in the diet (500, 600, and 700 g/kg DM) when a mixed sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and jackbean (Cannavalia ensiformis) silage was used as forage. Experiment 2 studied the substitution of sorghum silage and soybean meal by jackbean silage or fresh cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) forage in the diet. All diets were iso-energetic and iso-proteic. In each experiment, 30 cows were used and separated into three groups. In experiment 1, there were no differences in dry matter intake (DMI), milk yield (MY), or apparent total tract digestibility (aTTd) among the three diets, but milk fat content increased with increasing forage proportion, even though the similar neutral detergent fiber of all diets. Nitrogen use efficiency was highest in the diet containing 600 g forage/kg DM, and some evidence was observed for a better profitability with this forage proportion. In experiment 2, feeding legumes increased DMI despite no effects on aTTd. Milk yield increased in line with DMI, with a larger increase for the fresh cowpea. Nitrogen use efficiency and milk composition were not affected by the diets. The increased MY and lower feed costs increased the economic benefits when feeding legumes, particularly when feeding fresh cowpea. Feeding fresh cowpea or jackbean silage to dairy cows appears to be an alternative to soybean as protein source, ideally at a forage proportions of 600 g/kg DM, without altering milk yield and quality and increasing the farm profitability.

Centering human milk composition as normal human biological variation

“…The result, many millions of years later, is the enormous diversity in mammalian milks that have been identified across the main mammalian orders. While diversity in composition within these orders has been discussed, variation within species is poorly understood with the exception of some dairying species where economic incentives have driven research (Castro‐Montoya et al, 2018; Dils, 1986; El‐Zaiat et al, 2019; Vibart et al, 2012; Williams et al, 2018). Ben Shaul (1962) was one of the first mammalian milk researchers to broadly classify milk macronutrient composition into different groups reflecting not simply taxonomy but also environmental pressures and differences in maternal behavioral strategies.…”

Effects of replacing Brachiaria hay with either Desmodium intortum or dairy concentrate on animal performance and enteric methane emissions of low-yielding dairy cows

“…One of the main limiting factors to ruminant production in smallholder systems in developing countries is feeding of lowquality forages (Kebreab et al, 2005;Castro-Montoya et al, 2018). In Sub-Saharan Africa, tropical grasses and crop residues form the main diet component for cattle with low supplementation, if any.…”

Plant biostimulant on the production of biomass and yield grain of soybean

“…Plants that did not receive doses of phytostimulant had the first pod insertion height of less than 10 cm.Rezende (2001) verified that the soybean plants that did not receive the cut showed highest height of insertion of the first pod of 13 cm and the plants with the cut at 75 DAE provided the lowest one (7.00 cm). Other authors(SANTOS, 1981; FAVORETTO, 1987; GRIS, 2008;CASTRO-MONTOYA et al, 2018)…”