Inclusion of Maize or Oats-vetch Silage for Grazing Dairy Cows in Small-scale Campesino Systems in the Highlands of Central Mexico

Abstract

Guadarrama-Estrada, J., Espinoza-Ortega, A., González-Esquivel, C.E. and Arriaga-Jordán, CM. 2007. Inclusion of maize or oats-vetch silage for grazing dairy cows in small-scale campesino systems in the highlands of Central Mexico. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 32: 19–23.

The productive and economic response of cows fed 6 kg DM/day of maize (Zea mays),(MS) or oats-vetch (Avena sativa-Vicia sativa), (OVS) silage under 9 h/day continuous grazing of ryegrass-white clover pasture was evaluated at a stocking rate of 4 cows/ha supplemented with 4 kg/day of commercial concentrate. Six Holstein cows were grouped in pairs by parity and lactation days and randomly assigned to treatments in a split-plot design. Mean liveweight and daily milk yields were not affected by treatments but maize silage resulted in better (P>0.05) body condition score with better returns. Thus maize silage was found superior to oats-vetch silage.

Keywords:

• Maize silage
• oats-vetch silage
• dairy cows
• grazing
• small-scale systems
• highlands
• Mexico