Silage and milk production: a comparison between supplements of barley and soybean meal offered with white clover silage

Silage made from Blanca white clover was offered ad libitum to four Friesian cows in a 12-week changeover experiment. The silage contained 990 g white clover DM (kg DM)⁻¹ with 254 g DM kg⁻¹ and 243 g CP (kg DM)⁻¹ The pH was 3.98 and the in vitro DOMD concentration 680 g kg⁻¹. The silage was the sole feed in the control treatment; in the other three treatments it was supplemented with barley, soybean meal, and a mixture of these feeds supplying 8.1, 2.7 and 7.8 kg DM per cow respectively. The daily intakes of silage DM were 19.3, 13.5, 17.5 and 13.5 kg per cow, and the daily milk yields were 26.3, 28.0, 28.6 and 27.6 kg per cow on the control, barley, soybean and barley plus soybean treatments respectively. It is concluded that the white clover silage had an excellent fermentation and a large potential for milk production.