title: Intercropped oats (Avena sativa) - common vetch (Vicia sativa) silage in the dry season for small-scale dairy systems in the highlands of central Mexico.
abstract: Small-scale dairy systems in the highlands of central Mexico require feeding strategies based on quality home-grown forage that may reduce high concentrate costs. Eight Holstein cows paired by parity and date of calving were used in a split-plot experiment to evaluate supplementing 6 kg DM/cow/d of oat-vetch silage (OVS) in comparison to maize silage (MS) as dry season feeding, for a more intensive use of the land through an oat-vetch catch crop. Cows had 9 h/d access to continuous grazing of perennial ryegrass - white clover pasture and 4 kg/d of commercial concentrate. The 9 week experiment, recorded weekly milk yield and composition, and body condition score and live-weight every fortnight. Milk yield was 20.1 kg/cow/d for OVS and 15.4 for MS (SEM +/-2.9, P > 0.05), with no differences for fat or protein content, body condition score, or live-weight (P > 0.05). The economic analysis showed that although feeding costs were higher for OVS, margins were greater than for MS, with feeding cost per litre of $0.21 for MS and $0.16 for OVS. OVS is a viable catch crop after the MS harvest that can substitute MS in the dry season enabling a more intensive use of the land.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Agropecuarias, Toluca, México.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Garduño-Castro
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Espinoza-Ortega
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: González-Esquivel
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mateo-Salazar
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Arriaga-Jordán
mesh_terms: D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D018554:Avena; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology; D002417:Cattle / Q000254:growth & development*; D003612:Dairying / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D007774:Lactation; D008800:Mexico; D008892:Milk / Q000191:economics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012621:Seasons; D012820:Silage; D031306:Vicia; D003313:Zea mays