Milk yield, intake, and blood traits of lactating cows fed grass silage conserved under different harvesting methods

• Published in: Journal of dairy science 1993-05, Vol.76 (5), p.1365-1374
• Main Authors: Petit, Helene V, Tremblay, G. F, Savoie, P, Tremblay, D, Wauthy, J. M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; blood composition; Cattle - blood; Cattle - physiology; chemical composition; composicion de la sangre; composicion quimica; composition chimique; composition du sang; contenido de materia seca; cutting implements; dairy cows; digestibilidad; digestibilite; digestibility; Digestion; dry matter content; Energy Metabolism; ensilado; ensilage produit; ensilage traitement; ensilaje; Fatty Acids, Nonesterified - blood; feed grasses; feed intake; Female; Food industries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; gramineas forrajeras; graminee fourragere; herramientas para cortar; ingestion de pienso; Lactation - physiology; lait; leche; materiel de decoupage; milk; Milk - chemistry; Milk and cheese industries. Ice creams; milk yield; Nitrogen - metabolism; nitrogen retention; peso; poids; prise alimentaire animaux; rendement laitier; rendimiento lechero; retencion nitrogenada; retention azotee; Silage; silage making; teneur en matiere seche; vacas lecheras; vache laitiere; weight
• ISSN: 0022-0302; 1525-3198
• DOI: 10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(93)77467-6

Thirty-two Holstein cows (8 primiparous) were assigned to negative control or to one of three treatments to assess three forage harvesting and conservation techniques. Forage was harvested as low moisture silage by either a cylinder-type forage harvester, a self-loading forage harvester, or a round baler. Treatment diets were fed from wk 4 to 15 of lactation and consisted of silages harvested by the respective methods supplemented with concentrate at 1.1% of BW. Unsupplemented silage harvested by a cylinder-type forage harvester was used as a control. Daily DMI was higher for cows fed supplemented heap silage cut with either a cylinder-type forage harvester (23.7 kg) or a self-loading forage harvester (22.6 kg) than for cows fed the control (20.0 kg) or supplemented round bale silage (20.1 kg). Milk yield was highest for cows fed supplemented heap silage cut with a cylinder-type forage harvester (26.6 kg/d) and lower for those fed supplemented heap silage cut with a self-loading forage harvester (22.7 kg/d) or the control (20.8 kg/d). Milk composition and digestibilities of DM, N, ADF, and energy were similar among treatments. Postfeeding NEFA concentration decreased more for control cows than for those fed supplemented silage, which was related to greater BW loss. The high milk yield for cows fed supplemented heap silage cut with a cylinder-type forage harvester could be related to a high DMI and low BW gain.