Silage and milk production: studies with diets containing white clover silage |
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Authors: | M E CASTLE D REID J N WATSON |
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Institution: | Hannah Research Institute, Ayr, UK |
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Abstract: | In three separate feeding experiments using a total of twenty-six individually-housed Ayrshire cows, three wilted silages made from Blanca white clover were offered ad libitum with either different supplements or different proportions of grass silage. The clover silages contained 680 g white clover kg−1 on a DM basis, and had a mean DM concentration of 263 g kg−1 with 231 g CP kg−1 DM and 91 g ammonia-N kg−1 N. The pH values averaged 4·16 and the DOMD concentrations 611 g kg−1. In experiment 1 the daily intake of clover silage given alone was 15.2 kg DM per cow, i.e. 30·1 g kg−1 live weight, and decreased by 0·76 kg DM kg−1 barley DM and by 0·66 kg DM kg−1barley plus soybean meal DM when these feeds were offered as supplements. Milk yield and fat concentration were higher on the supplement treatments than on the clover silage-only treatment. In experiments 2 and 3 the intakes of silage and total DM increased as the weight of clover in the diet increased from 0 to 700 g kg−1 with parallel increases in milk yield. The effects on milk composition were small and generally non-significant. Although white clover silages with excellent fermentations were made, it is concluded that the main role of white clover in a silage system will be in mixed swards with grass to reduce the input of fertilizer N and to increase the voluntary intake of silage. |
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