Silage and milk production: comparisons between hays of different digestibilities as silage supplements

Abstract

In three separate feeding experiments using a total of thirty individually-housed Ayrshire eows three silages made from perennial ryegrass were given ad libitum together with supplements of four different hays in the long form. The in vitro D-values of the silages ranged from 0-598 to 0-683, and the hays from 0-580 to 0-700, The daily intake of hay DM varied from 0-8 to 4-1 kg per cow and was given either without or with a daily maximum of 2-4 kg concentrate DM containing 379-527 g CP per kg DM, On average, 1 kg hay DM decreased silage intake by 0-84 kg DM with a range of 0-61-1-00 kg. The hay supplements had only small and non-significant effects on total DM intake, milk yield and milk composition, but increased the daily intake of drinking water. In three behavioural studies, the eating and ruminating times expressed as min per kg DM did not differ significantly between the various supplement treatments. It is concluded that hay has only a marginal value as a supplement for grass silage, although the hay could serve as a useful 'buffer' feed if the amount of silage was limited.

Silage and milk production: a comparison between supplements of barley and soybean meal offered with white clover silage

“…Silage intake was lower, but not significantly, with the soybean supplement (treatment C) than with the silage-only ration (treatment A). This decrease, although not significant, is unlike the effect of soybean meal when offered as a supplement to grass silage in an earlier experiment (Retter and Castle, 1982) in which there was no significant effect on the intake of silage DM. A possible explanation for these different results could be the large difference in the crude protein (CP) concentrations in the grass and the clover silages in the two experiments and thus differences in the overall digestibility of the two diets which would affect intake.…”