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The Feeding of Dairy Cows with Fodder Beet and Concentrate containing Two Levels of Protein

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2017

D J Roberts  and
M S Sabri
D J Roberts
Affiliation:
The West of Scotland Agricultural College Crichton Royal Farm Dumfries DG1 4SZ
M S Sabri
Affiliation:
The West of Scotland Agricultural College Crichton Royal Farm Dumfries DG1 4SZ
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Extract

Fodder beet is a high yielding crop in terms of dry matter (DM) per hectare with yields of up to 12 t DM ha-1 from the roots and 2 to 5 t DM ha-1 from the tops. The root has a high metabolizable energy (ME) content and the average utilized metabolizable energy (UME) per hectare is 150% of average grass silage UME production (Heppel, 1985). The roots are highly digestible and can be used in dairy cow diets as a substitute for silage or concentrates. Most research work has shown an increase in total dry matter intake when fodder beet is included in a dairy cow ration (Roberts, 1987). The effect on animal performance, particularly milk fat content, is however more variable (Sabri, 1987). One reason for the differences may be the level of protein supplementatio in the fodder beet rations.

This experiment evaluated the interactions between the feeding of fodder beet and level of protein supplementation in the concentrate on feed intake and cow performance.

Type
Energy and Protein Utilisation by Dairy cows
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Production (1972) , Volume 1988 , March 1988 , pp. 23
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Production 1988

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References

Heppel, V A F (1985) Growing fodder beet as a ‘low input’ crop. Technical Note No 250. West of Scotland Agricultural College.Google Scholar
Roberts, D J (1987) The effects of feeding fodder beet to dairy cows offered silage ad libitum . Grass and Forage Science 42, 391–396.Google Scholar
Sabri, M S (1987) The effect of bulky supplementary feeds on the intake of silage by dairy cows. MSc Thesis, University of Glasgow.Google Scholar