Silage from maize (Zea mays), annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) or their mixture in the dry season feeding of grazing dairy cows in small-scale dairy production systems in the highlands of Mexico.
Small-scale dairy systems based on grazing have dry-season herbage shortages. A repeated 3 x 3 Latin Square experiment evaluated grazing with silage from maize (MS), annual ryegrass (ARG) or a mixture (MIX) with 9 cows with 3 week periods; continuously grazed at 3.6 cows/ha with 3.6 kg DM/day of concentrate. Treatments were 7 kg DM of MS, ARG or a 2 MS:1 ARG mixture. Milk yield (MY), milk composition, live-weight, body condition, silage and concentrate intake were recorded. Herbage DM intake was estimated indirectly. Activity budgets were done for economic analysis. MY on MS (21.5 kg/cow/d) was 0.06 higher than on ARG (P < 0.09) with no differences on MIX. There were no differences for milk fat, milk protein, or body condition score. Live-weight on ARG was higher (P < 0.01) than on MS or MIX. Silage intake was higher (P < 0.01) on ARG and MS than on MIX. Herbage intake was lower (P < 0.05) on MS, compared with MIX and ARG. Total DM intake on ARG was higher than MS (P < 0.01), and MIX in between. MS resulted in 0.12 higher economic returns over ARG which had highest costs. Annual ryegrass may have a place in small-scale systems, but not as silage due to higher costs.
Anaya-Ortega
J P
JP
Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Agropecuarias (CICA), Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Instituto Literario, Toluca, Estado de México, México.
Garduño-Castro
G
G
Espinoza-Ortega
A
A
Rojo-Rubio
R
R
Arriaga-Jordán
C M
CM
D000821:Animal Feed; D000822:Animal Husbandry; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle / Q000502:physiology*; D003612:Dairying; D004032:Diet / Q000662:veterinary*; D005260:Female; D008129:Lolium; D008800:Mexico; D012621:Seasons; D012820:Silage; D003313:Zea mays
J Dairy Sci. 2002 Sep;85(9):2277-82
12362460
J Dairy Sci. 2006 May;89(5):1662-72
16606736
Trop Anim Health Prod. 2007 Apr;39(3):179-88
17691542
J Dairy Sci. 1995 Jan;78(1):154-60
7738251