Effects of partial replacement of corn and alfalfa silage with tall fescue hay on total-tract digestibility and lactation performance in dairy cows

Abstract

Our objective was to evaluate the effects of replacing either corn or alfalfa silage with tall fescue hay on total-tract neutral detergent fiber (NDF) digestibility and lactation performance in dairy cows. Twenty-four primiparous (75±35 d in milk) and 40 multiparous (68±19 d in milk) Holstein cows were blocked by parity and randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatment groups in a pen equipped with 32 feeding gates to record intake by cow. Each gate was randomly assigned to 1 treatment group; thus, each cow had access to all 8 gates within the respective treatment and cow was the experimental unit. Treatments were formulated to replace either corn silage (CS) or alfalfa silage (AS) with tall fescue hay (TF) as follows (DM basis): 33% AS and 67% CS (control; 33AS67CS), 60% TF and 40% AS (60TF40AS), 60% TF and 40% CS (60TF40CS), and 33% TF and 67% CS (33TF67CS). The experiment was a 7-wk continuous lactation trial with a 2-wk covariate period. Milk production did not differ among treatments and averaged 40.4 kg/d. Fat yield and concentration and protein yield and concentration did not differ among treatments and averaged 1.58 kg/d, 3.94%, 1.28 kg/d, and 3.15%, respectively. Dry matter intake was greater for 33AS67CS (24.5 kg/d) compared with 60TF40CS (22.1 kg/d) and 33TF67CS (22.7 kg/d), and tended to be greater than 60TF40AS (23.2 kg/d). In vivo total-tract dry matter digestibility did not differ among treatments and averaged 66.2%. In vivo total-tract NDF digestibility was lower for 33AS67CS (37.8%) compared with 60TF40AS (44.4%) and 33TF67CS (45.3%), and similar to 60TF40CS (42.4%). In vivo total-tract NDF digestibility and an estimate of in situ total-tract NDF digestibility were similar between techniques across all treatment diets (42.3 vs. 42.6%, respectively). Inclusion of tall fescue grass hay increased the total-tract NDF digestibility of the diet and has the potential to replace corn silage and alfalfa silage and maintain milk production if economically feasible based on current market prices.

Effects of the addition of essential oils cumimaldehyde, eugenol, and thymol on the in vitro gas production and digestibility of alfalfa ( Medicago sativa L. ) silage

“…The nutrient contents of the silage used in this research are given in Table 1. The results of the present study were similar to those of many studies in terms of CP (19)(20)(21), ADL (19,21,22), ash (21,23,24), EE (25), NDF (19,21), and ADF (19,21,23). The mean cumulative gas production of 100-ppm, 200-ppm, and 300-ppm concentrations from each cuminaldehyde, eugenol, and thymol addition to alfalfa silage at 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, 48, 72, and 96 h incubation were significantly lower than those of the control group (P < 0.05).…”

“…Evans and Martin (29) reported that thymol (0.4 g/L) sourced from Thymus and Origanum plants strongly inhibited in vitro gas production, a finding that is complemented by the results of the current study. The in vitro cumulative amounts of gas from alfalfa silage after 24 h of incubation reported by Opsi et al (23) and Benchaar et al (28) are similar to the results of the present study. Pour et al (30) determined gas production to be within the range of 60.89-68.82 mL at the 96th h of the incubation period for each 200-mg sample of alfalfa silage.…”

Novel mixtures of Italian ryegrass and winter cereals: influence of ensiling on nutritional composition, fermentation characteristics, microbial counts and ruminal degradability

“…National Research Council (NRC) (1989) reported that a large proportion of dietary NDF should come from forages and at least 25% of dairy ration should be composed of NDF (Oba and Allen, 1999). Therefore, the amount and ruminal degradability of NDF is a very important factor in the dairy cow's nutrition because forage NDF varies widely in its degradability in the rumen and NDF digestibility influences animal performance (Nousiainen et al 2009;Zebeli et al 2012;Bender et al 2016). Grasses typically have higher NDF content as compared to corn and alfalfa silage (National Research Council (NRC) 2001;Bender et al 2016).…”

“…Therefore, the amount and ruminal degradability of NDF is a very important factor in the dairy cow's nutrition because forage NDF varies widely in its degradability in the rumen and NDF digestibility influences animal performance (Nousiainen et al 2009;Zebeli et al 2012;Bender et al 2016). Grasses typically have higher NDF content as compared to corn and alfalfa silage (National Research Council (NRC) 2001;Bender et al 2016). However, both alfalfa and corn silage have wider acceptance in dairy nutrition due to their higher DM digestibility as compared to grass silage (Bender et al 2016).…”

“…Grasses typically have higher NDF content as compared to corn and alfalfa silage (National Research Council (NRC) 2001;Bender et al 2016). However, both alfalfa and corn silage have wider acceptance in dairy nutrition due to their higher DM digestibility as compared to grass silage (Bender et al 2016). Identifying highly digestible and/or ruminal degradable (particularly NDF and ADF) grass has been a critical challenge in partial replacement of corn and alfalfa silage in the nutrition of dairy cows (Bender et al, 2016).…”