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Effects of mixing red clover and maize silages on milk production and whole-body N partitioning in dairy cows

Moorby, Dr J. M.; Ellis, Miss N. M.; Fisher, Mr W. J.; Davies, Mr D. W. R. and Davies, Dr D. R. (2008) Effects of mixing red clover and maize silages on milk production and whole-body N partitioning in dairy cows. Poster at: Cultivating the Future Based on Science: 2nd Conference of the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research ISOFAR, Modena, Italy, June 18-20, 2008.

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Summary

Twenty-four multiparous Holstein-Friesian dairy cows in mid lactation were used in a 33 Latin square changeover experiment with three 4-week periods to investigate the effect of altering the ratios of red clover (RC) silage and maize silage in the forage component of their diet. Ratios (in the dry matter (DM)) were: RC10, 0.1 RC:0.9 maize; RC50, 0.5 RC:0.5 maize; RC90, 0.9 RC:0.1 maize. All cows received ad libitum access to their allocated forage with 4 kg of a standard concentrate per day. Whole-body N partitioning and whole-tract diet digestibility measurements were carried out using a subset of cows (n=9). Results are presented in order of RC10, RC50 and RC90 respectively. Feed DM intakes (19.6, 20.5, 19.5 kg DM d-1, s.e.d. 0.32, P<0.01) and milk yields (26.1, 27.3, 25.7 kg milk d-1, s.e.d. 0.54, P<0.01) were highest on diet RC50. Milk protein concentrations decreased (P<0.001) as forage RC proportion increased, and protein yields were significantly (P<0.01) higher on diet RC50. Urine N excretion was lowest (as a ratio to N intake), and milk N secretion was highest, on diet RC10. It is concluded that milk and protein yields can be improved by feeding RC silage as 1:1 mix with maize silage, but that the efficiency of utilisation of forage N was reduced when diets contained more than 0.1 RC silage.


EPrint Type:Conference paper, poster, etc.
Type of presentation:Poster
Keywords:dairy cows, maize, milk production, nitrogen partitioning, red clove
Subjects: Animal husbandry > Feeding and growth
Research affiliation: UK > Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER)
International Conferences > 2008: IFOAM OWC: Research Track / ISOFAR > 3.3 Animal health and nutrition – ruminants
Deposited By: Moorby, Dr Jon
ID Code:11756
Deposited On:02 Oct 2008
Last Modified:12 Apr 2010 07:35
Document Language:English
Status:Published
Refereed:Peer-reviewed and accepted
Additional Publishing Information:This paper is published in the conference proceedings:
Neuhoff, Daniel; Halberg, Niels; Alfldi, Thomas; Lockeretz, William; Thommen, Andreas; Rasmussen, Ilse A.; Hermansen, John; Vaarst, Mette; Lck, Lorna; Carporali, Fabio; Jensen, Henning Hgh; Migliorini, Paola and Willer, Helga, Eds. (2008) .Cultivating the Future Based on Science. Proceedings of the Second Scientific Conference of the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR), held at the 16th IFOAM Organic World Congress in Cooperation with the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and the Consorzio ModenaBio, 18 . 20 June 2008 in Modena, Italy.. International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR), c/o IOL, DE-Bonn, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, CH-Frick. http://orgprints.org/13672 and http://orgprints.org/13674

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