Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-5g6vh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T23:58:10.672Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Production responses by cows to grass-clover swards maintained at different heights with or without concentrate supplementation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2017

C. A. Huckle ,
A. J. Rook  and
R. J. Wilkins
C. A. Huckle
Affiliation:
AFRC Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, North Wyke, Okehampton, Devon EX20 2SB
A. J. Rook
Affiliation:
AFRC Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, North Wyke, Okehampton, Devon EX20 2SB
R. J. Wilkins
Affiliation:
AFRC Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, North Wyke, Okehampton, Devon EX20 2SB
Get access

Extract

Clements, Huckle and Wilkins (1991) reported that milk yield did not differ significantly between cows grazing grass-clover swards with compressed sward heights maintained at either 4.5 or 6 cm in early season. However, cows grazing the shorter sward produced milk with a lower protein concentration. The feeding of 4 kg concentrates/day resulted in an increase in milk yield at both sward heights but there was no effect on milk constituent concentrations. The present experiment was designed to investigate the effect of a wider range of sward heights and their interaction with concentrate supplementation.

Forty eight, multiparous, Holstein Friesian cows with a mean calving date of 21 March were continuously stocked on mixed grass-clover swards. The cows were blocked by calving date, parity and milk yield and randomly allocated to one of six treatments, 0 (U) or 4 kg concentrate supplementation (S) with swards maintained at 4, 6 or 8 cm compressed sward height. Sward heights were maintained by adjusting the grazed area. The swards were permanent pastures which had received no fertilizer nitrogen.

Type
Dairy Production
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Production (1972) , Volume 1993: Winter meeting , March 1993 , pp. 99
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Production 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Clements, A. J., Huckle, C. A. and Wilkins, R. J. (1991). The effects of sward height and level of concentrate supplementation on the milk production of spring-calving dairy cows grazing grass-clover swards. In: Grass on the Move, a positive way forward for the grassland farmer. British Grassland Society Occasional Symposium 26, Ed. A. Hopkins, , pp 145–149.Google Scholar
Leaver, J. D. (1986). Effects of supplements on herbage intake and performance. In. Grazing, British Grassland Society Occasional Symposium 19, Ed J. Frame, , pp 79–88.Google Scholar
Mayes, R. W., Lamb, C. S. and Colgrove, P. M. (1986). The use of dosed and herbage n-alkanes as markers for the determination of herbage intake. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 107: 161–170.Google Scholar