Milk production, grazing behavior and nutritional status of dairy cows grazing two herbage allowances during winter

Ruiz‐Albarrán, Miguel; Balocchi, Óscar; Wittwer, F; Pulido, Rubén

doi:10.4067/s0718-58392016000100005

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Most of these studies were conducted in the spring and summer or in the summer only and show that as herbage allowance increases herbage intake and milk production per cow increase, whereas efficiency of grazing decreases. Ruiz-Albarrán et al [14] reported that reducing the DHA from 25 kg DM/day to 17 kg DM/day in winter increases milk production (+25%), milk protein (+20 kg), and milk fat (+17 kg) per hectare, without differences in individual milk performance nor the energetic and protein metabolic indicators of autumn calving dairy cows (measured as B-hydroxybutyrate and urea concentrations in plasma, respectively). All these studies were developed with emphasis on the animals' requirements rather than on the pasture condition indicators, and just a few studies have also considered the manner in which the pasture responds to DHA restriction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-Term Effect of Daily Herbage Allowance Restriction on Pasture Condition and the Performance of Grazing Dairy Cows during Autumn

Merino

Balocchi

Rivero

et al. 2019

Animals

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Simple Summary: Daily herbage allowance (defined as herbage mass × daily offered area) is recognized as the main grazing management factor to improve pasture utilization and milk output per hectare. Daily herbage allowances should balance the dual objectives of high milk output per hectare while maintaining the quality of the pasture to optimize the profitability of grazing-based dairy production systems. We tested two contrasting herbage allowances (17 and 25 kg dry matter (DM)/cow.day) and two levels of maize silage supplementation (4.5 and 9 kg DM/cow.day) in grazing dairy cows and measured a set of variables related to pasture management, sward characteristics, dynamic of herbage depletion throughout the grazing sessions, and cows grazing behavior, among others. Our results suggest that a more intensive grazing regime of 17 kg DM/cow per day of daily herbage allowance rather than a high level of supplementation with maize silage is appropriate to improve milk production and solids yield per hectare without affecting pasture quality or sward characteristics over the short-term.Abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the short-term effects of daily herbage allowance (DHA, defined as the product of pre-grazing herbage mass and offered area per animal) on pasture conditions and milk production of Holstein-Friesian dairy cows. Forty-four early lactation dairy cows were randomly assigned to one of four treatments in a 2 × 2 factorial design that tested two levels of DHA (17 and 25 kg DM/cow.day) and two levels of maize silage supplementation (MSS, 4.5 and 9 kg DM/cow.day) over a 77-day period. Low DHA decreased the post-grazing herbage mass from 1546 to 1430 kg DM/ha and the compressed sward height from 5 to 4.4 cm, while the grazing efficiency remained unaffected. Low DHA induced a faster herbage mass reduction, while the sward-height and pasture characteristics did not differ from the high DHA regime. Low DHA decreased the tiller production rates and daily lamina growth, while the leaf-production rate was not affected by the DHA. Daily increases of herbage mass were greater in the high DHA than in the low DHA treatments. Individual milk production and milk protein concentration decreased at a low DHA compared to high DHA, while the milk fat concentration was greater and the milk output per hectare increased by 1510 kg. Neither the MSS level nor the interaction DHA by the MSS level had any effect on the sward characteristics or the productivity of the cows. From these results, it is suggested that, Animals 2020, 10, 62 2 of 17 in a high-quality pasture, using 17 kg DM/cow.day was appropriate for improving both herbage utilization and milk production per hectare while maintaining the short-term conditions of a pasture grazed by dairy cows in the autumn.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-Term Effect of Daily Herbage Allowance Restriction on Pasture Condition and the Performance of Grazing Dairy Cows during Autumn

Merino

Balocchi

Rivero

et al. 2019

Animals

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“…In addition, grass development was based on vegetative growth, characterized with higher proportions of grass leaf, lower proportions of grass stem and dead material, and more digestible than other vegetative state. Temperate herbages used for dairy cows are described as high quality when chemical composition is around 180-240 g DM kg-1 , 180 to 250 g CP kg-1 DM, 400 to 500 g NDF kg-1 DM, and 10.47 to 12.14 MJ ME kg-1 DM (19) . Under the conditions of this experiment, herbage was characterized by low concentrations of crude protein, low energy and low amounts of non-structural carbohydrates and DM.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Productive and economic response to concentrate supplementation by grazing dairy cows at high stocking

Portillo

López-González

Ruiz‐Albarrán

et al. 2019

Rev. Mex. Cienc. Pecu.

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Small-scale dairy systems contribute to ameliorate rural poverty and to local milk supply. Their sustainability is limited by high feeding costs, mainly from purchased concentrates (CC); whereas a higher reliance on quality forage may improve profitability; but high stocking rates may justify high CC use. The objective of this work was to assess the productive and economic response by grazing dairy cows to levels of CC under grazing of ryegrass-white clover pastures under high stocking rate (4 cows/ha). Six Holstein milking cows were replicated assigned 3 X 3 Latin Square arrangements. Daily milk yield and composition were recorded, and feed intake estimated from utilised metabolizable energy. Treatments were: T1= 1.0 kg T6= 3.0 kg and T6= 6.0 kg concentrate/cow/d. There were significant differences (P<0.05) for milk yield, with T6 having higher yields than T1 and T3. There were no significant differences in milk protein or fat content among treatments (P>0.05). Herbage intake was significantly (P<0.05) lower in T6, with no feeding costs, but feeding cost per kg of milk was 2.2 times higher in T6 compared to T1, and margin per kilo of milk was 26 % higher in T1 than T6. Although milk yields are higher with T6, T1 and T3 require less expenditures and margins are similar. Supplementation may alleviate high grazing pressure that deteriorates pastures, ensuring the long-term sustainability of small-scale dairy farming systems.

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“…On the other hand, the high content of CP and SP recorded in L-AM is explained by the combination effect of low herbage mass and AM schedule. This resulted in sward of vegetative state composed of leaves and young stems, with a low presence of dead material and high moisture content and non-protein N, this being common in autumn, due to the lower growth rate of pastures (Keim et al, 2014;Ruiz-Albarrán et al, 2016b).…”

Section: Herbage Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in herbage mass and time of herbage allocation modify nutritional and metabolic status of dairy cows

Morales

Godoy

Beltrán

et al. 2018

Chil. j. agric. res.

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In temperate milk production systems, it is important to study the effect of grazing strategies in both the quantity and quality of the diet, resulting in potential impacts on animal metabolism. The aim was to evaluate the effect of timing of herbage allocation and herbage mass on blood indicators. Forty Holstein-Friesian cows were grouped according to milk production (24.7 ± 2.8 kg cow-1), body weight (580.6 ± 51.7 kg) and days in milk (74 ± 17.1 d). The groups were randomly allocated to one of four treatments: 1) L-AM, access to new herbage allocation after morning milking with herbage mass of 2000 kg DM ha-1 ; 2) L-PM; access to new herbage allocation after afternoon milking with herbage mass of 2000 kg DM ha-1 ; 3) HAM ; access to new herbage allocation after morning milking with herbage mass of 3000 kg DM ha-1 ; 4) H-PM; access to new herbage allocation after afternoon milking with herbage mass of 3000 kg DM ha-1. Milk production was only different for H-PM in 1.1 kg higher than L-PM. Urea in milk was affected by treatments, being 22% higher for L-AM than other treatments. β-Hydroxybutyrate and blood urea concentrations were 47% and 30% higher, respectively, for AM compared to PM treatments. Plasma albumin concentration was lower for H-PM compared to other treatments at week 3 of blood sampling. PM treatments modify the herbage composition and animal metabolism, while combining it with a high herbage mass impacts positively in production and milk composition.

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Milk production, grazing behavior and nutritional status of dairy cows grazing two herbage allowances during winter

Cited by 12 publications

References 24 publications

Short-Term Effect of Daily Herbage Allowance Restriction on Pasture Condition and the Performance of Grazing Dairy Cows during Autumn

Short-Term Effect of Daily Herbage Allowance Restriction on Pasture Condition and the Performance of Grazing Dairy Cows during Autumn

Productive and economic response to concentrate supplementation by grazing dairy cows at high stocking

Changes in herbage mass and time of herbage allocation modify nutritional and metabolic status of dairy cows

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