Annual pastures, seed mixtures and supplementary feeding in organic milk production

The current study was aiming to evaluate annual legume-grass-cereal mixture as a basal feed for dairy cows under organic or other low fertiliser input systems in Nordic conditions. In additional aim was to evaluate the effect of concentrate feeding regimen in order to simplify grazing management

Effects of replacing different proportions of barley grain by barley fibre on performance of dairy bulls

The objective of the present experiment was to study the effects of partial replacement of barley grain with barley fibre (BF) on animal performance, carcass traits and diet digestibility of growing dairy bulls. The feeding experiment comprised 20 Finnish Ayrshire bulls and 12 Holstein-Friesian bulls, and four treatments (8 bulls per treatment). There were four diets with two offered at stage 1 (from the initiation of the study to 450 kg live weight) and four at stage 2 (from 450 kg live weight to slaughter). The control diet (BF0) included grass silage (460 g kg–1 dry matter) and barley grain (540), BF25 diet included grass silage (460), barley grain (405) and BF (135), BF50 diet included grass silage (460), barley grain (270) and BF (270), and BF75 diet included grass silage (460), barley grain (135) and BF (405). At stage 1 there were only two treatments (BF0 and BF50) and at stage 2, all four treatments were included. All bulls were fed total mixed ration ad libitum. The mean initial live weight of the bulls was 261 kg and the mean final live weight 650 kg. At stage 1 there were no significant treatment differences in dry matter, energy or protein intakes or in live weight gain. At stage 2, replacing barley grain with BF led to a linear decrease of daily live weight gain (P < 0.05) and a linearly reduced feed conversion (kg dry matter kg–1 live weight gain) (P < 0.05). The apparent digestibility of the organic matter and neutral detergent fibre decreased linearly with increasing BF supplementation (P < 0.001). The dressing proportion and the carcass fat score decreased linearly (P < 0.05) with partial replacement of barley grain with BF. On carcass conformation, treatment had a significant (P < 0.05) quadratic effect: the BF25 and BF50 diets were classified highest. The results indicate that 50% of barley starch can be replaced with BF without affecting growth, but feed efficiency factors may decrease when barley starch is replaced with BF. At 75% replacement, feed intake was reduced, which resulted in a lower energy intake and reduced level of performance

Need for protein supplementation in the diet of growing dairy bulls fed total mixed ration based on moderate digestible grass silage and barley

The objective of the present experiment was to study the need for the protein supplementation in the diet of growing dairy bulls (initial live weight 272 ± 28.5 kg and final live weight 666 ± 31.2 kg, on average) fed total mixed ration based on moderate digestible grass silage and barley. The experiment comprised 24 Finnish Ayrshire bulls and 8 Holstein-Friesian bulls and included four treatments. The control diet (C) consisted of moderate digestible (653 g digestible organic matter in dry matter (DM) grass silage (450 g kg-1 DM), barley grain (275) and barley fibre (275) without protein supplementation. Three isonitrogenous experimental diets included also extra protein, i.e. (1) rapeseed meal (RSM) (supplementation 530 g DM per animal day-1), (2) wet distillers’ solubles (WDS) (600 g) and (3) a mixture of barley protein (90% of fresh weight) and wet distillers’ solubles (10) (BPWDS) (480 g). In all isonitrogenous diets the crude protein content of concentrate increased from 137 to 150 g kg-1 DM (9%) compared with the C diet. All bulls were fed total mixed ration ad libitum. The energy content of all diets was 11.6 MJ kg-1 DM. The live weight gain of the bulls tended to be higher with the BPWDS diet than with the C diet (C 1214 vs. BPWDS 1301 g d-1; p = 0.10), but the treatments had no significant effect on carcass gain, feed conversion or slaughter parameters. Only the BPWDS diet differed significantly from the C diet in DM (C 9.69 vs. BPWDS 10.38 kg DM d-1; p < 0.01) and energy intake (C 112.4 vs. BPWDS 120.3 MJ d-1; p < 0.05). The apparent organic matter digestibility (OMD) was 5% higher in the BPWDS diet than in the C diet (p < 0.001), but the RSM and WDS diets did not differ from the C diet in OMD. The results indicate that the supply of protein in dairy bulls is most probably adequate with moderate digestible, well-preserved grass silage and barley-based concentrates when intake of digestible organic matter is high enough to support microbial protein synthesis in the rumen

Näin saat lisää litroja luomulaitumelta

Luonnonmukaiseen tuotantoon siirtyminen merkitsee usein laitumen sadon pienenemistä, mitä ei luomussa voida luomusääntöjen vuoksi korvata runsaalla väkirehulla. Ratkaisu saattaa kuitenkin löytyä laiduntamisen tehostamisesta.vo

Comparison of part-time grazing and indoor silage feeding on milk production

Cows were assigned randomly to indoor silage feeding (with 2 h outdoor exercise) or part-time grazing treatment in two different experiments. One group was kept in confinement with ad libitum grass silage within each experiment. The other group had ad libitum grass silage indoors and they were put out on grass pasture during part of the 24 hour period, 12 hours (night, Experiment 1) and 6 hours (day, Experiment 2) in June, July and August. In Experiment 2, the concentrate (9 kg d-1) was given at two crude protein levels: high crude protein [185 g kg-1 dry matter (DM)] and low crude protein (135 g kg-1 DM). In Experiment 1, night-time grazing increased total DM intake and milk (3.9 kg d-1) production. There was interaction between month and forage feeding strategy, the difference in milk yield being smallest between treatments in June. In Experiment 2, day-time grazing had no significant main effect on milk production but there was significant interaction between month and forage feeding strategy showing 2.5 kg d-1 difference between treatments in July. High-protein concentrate tended to increase the milk yield more on the silage diet compared with the group grazing during daytime. .The differences in milk yield between the forage feeding treatments were mainly due to the higher dry matter intake and higher metabolizable energy content of the pasture grass compared with silage. The lower milk responses to concentrate crude protein in the cows grazing during daytime compared with the silage group indicate a high protein value of pasture grass. It is concluded that part-time grazing increases the milk yield and decreases the need for supplementary concentrate protein

Sward and milk production response to early turnout of dairy cows to pasture in Finland

The timing of turnout is an important factor affecting the grazing management of dairy cows. However, its consequences are not well known in the short grazing season of northern Europe. Thus, the effect of the turnout date of dairy cows to pasture on sward regrowth, herbage mass production and milk production was studied in two experiments, 1) a grazing trial with 16 Holstein-Friesian dairy cows and 2) a plot trial where the treatments simulated the grazing trial. The treatments were early turnout (1 June) and normal turnout (6 June). Early turnout decreased the annual herbage mass (HM) production in the plot trial (P=0,005), but due to a higher average organic matter (OM) digestibility (P0,05). Although early turnout had no effect on milk yields it meant easier management of pastures

Kokemuksia yksivuotisista laidunnurmista luonnonmukaisessa maidontuotannossa

Laiduntaminen kuuluu keskeisenä osana luonnonmukaiseen kotieläintuotantoon. Yksivuotiset laitumet voivat pidentää lyhyttä laidunkautta syksystä. Kesällä 1999 verrattiin kahta yksivuotista palkokasviseosta maidontuotannossa Joensuun yliopiston Siikasalmen tutkimustilalla.vokPA

Väkirehun kypsennyksen ja määrän vaikutus tuotoksiin

Vapaasti hyvälaatuista säilörehua saaneiden lehmien maitotuotos ei kasvanut, kun päivittäinen väkirehuannos suureni ensikoilla 10 kg:sta 15 kg:aan ja vanhemmilla lehmillä 13 kg:sta 18 kg:aan. Sen sijaan kypsennetty väkirehu, jossa oli käytetty osittain kuorittua kauraa, lisäsi tuotoksia.vo

Maitoa ei kannata juottaa pitkään luomuvasikoille

Viime elokuussa otettiin käyttöön uusi luomukotieläintuotantosääntö. Sen mukaan vasikat on ruokittava luonnollisella maidolla kolmen kuukauden ikään saakka. Pitkitetty juotto onnistuu käytännössä parhaiten, jos eläin jää sille tilalle, jossa se on syntynyt tai se siirretään jatkokasvatustilalle aikaisintaan kolmen kuukauden iässä. Taloudellisesti kannattavaa pitkä maitojuotto ei kuitenkaan ole.vo

Ohrarehu maistuu myös lypsylehmille

Ohrarehu osoittautui kokeessa hyväksi energiaväkirehuksi lehmille. Lehmät, joiden rehuseoksessa puolet ohrasta oli korvattu ohrarehulla, lypsivät enemmän kuin pelkkää ohraa energiaväkirehuna saaneet lehmät. Maidon valkuaistuotokseen ohrarehulla ei ollut vaikutusta. Sen sijaan ohrarehu paransi maitorasvan koostumusta lisäämällä tyydyttymättömien rasvahappojen sekä useita terveysvaikutuksia omaavan konjugoidun linolihapon (CLA) osuutta maitorasvassa.vo