Journal article
Using estimated nutrient intake from pasture to formulate supplementary concentrate mixes for grazing dairy cows
ML Douglas, MJ Auldist, MM Wright, LC Marett, VM Russo, MC Hannah, SC Garcia, WJ Wales
JOURNAL OF DAIRY SCIENCE | ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC | Published : 2021
Abstract
In pasture-based dairy systems, feeding a complex concentrate mix in the parlor during milking that contains cereal grains and protein supplements has been shown to have milk production advantages over feeding straight cereal grain. This experiment had the aim of testing whether further milk production advantages could be elicited by adjusting the composition of the concentrate mix in an attempt to match the expected nutrient intake from pasture during late spring. The experiment used 96 lactating dairy cows, grazing perennial ryegrass pasture offered at a target allowance of 30 kg of dry matter/cow per day (to ground level) during late spring (mid October to November) in southeastern Austra..
View full abstractGrants
Funding Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to G. Morris, A. McDonald, A. Hookey, S. Zierro, L. Dorling, D. Wilson, D. Stayches, M. Jenkin, D. Mapleson, C. Slater, L. Burns, A. Porter, K. Hoffman, D. Moate, B. Ribaux, T. Campbell, G. Allison, E. Rabl, B. Tonkin, and E. Tonkin, A. Glass and Agriculture Victoria Research, Ellinbank farm staff for cow feeding, husbandry, technical assistance, and data collection. Thanks also go to C. Lewis (Agriculture Victoria, Ellinbank) and C. Ho (Agriculture Victoria, Bundoora) for their assistance with the economic analyses. This research was funded by Dairy Australia and the State of Victoria through Agriculture Victoria. The authors have not stated any conflicts of interest.