Production of dairy cows fed whole-crop cereals or ryegrass silages supplemented with a fixed amount of concentrate

Abstract

Feed intake and milk production responses to whole-crop cereal silages and ryegrass silage (RGS) supplemented with a fixed amount of concentrate were measured in three 4×4 Latin square-designed experiment with three 17-day periods using 12 Holstein cows. Diets consisted of a fixed amount of concentrate (10 kg) and one of the following silages offered ad libitum: RGS, Mondego wheat silage (MWS), Alva wheat silage (AWS), and triticale silage (TS). Silage dry matter intake and milk yield were significantly higher for RGS. Milk composition was not affected by silage treatment. The whole-crop cereal silages tended to show higher milk concentrations of anteiso C15:0, iso C15:0, C16:1 and C18:1 and lower concentrations of C18:2 and C18:3. This study suggests better response of dairy cows to a single cut RGS than to whole-crop cereal silages harvested in an early stage of maturity.

Acknowledgments

This work was partially financed by the Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Pescas (INIAP, Portugal), Projecto 345, Medida 8, Acção 8.1 do Programa Agro (European Union), which is gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank the staff of Dairy Unit of Direcção Regional de Agricultura do Entre-Douro e Minho for the care of animals, and the staff of the Nutrition laboratory of AGROS/University of Porto for the analysis of feed samples.