The influence of the system of silage harvesting and feeding and the use of protected protein on milk production

The study compared two systems of silage harvesting, direct-cutting flail harvesting (flail-direct) or pre-cutting, followed by wilting and collection by a meter-chop harvester (precision-wilted). Each silage was self or easy fed to dairy cows. In addition, the response to protected soya bean meal included in the supplementary concentrate was also examined. Approximately 400 t of each of the two silages were produced from the same swards under good weather conditions with formic acid applied as an additive. The resulting silages were well preserved and had mean particle lengths of 43 and 29-mm, and D-values of 0-74 and 0-71 for the flail-direct and precision-wilted silages, respectively. During a 159-d feeding period commencing on 5 November, the silages were offered to 88 British Friesian cows in a 2³ factorial design, continuous feeding experiment. The cows calved during the experiment and had a mean calving date of 18 January. The feeding treatments involved both silage types, two systems of silage feeding (self and easy) and two sources of protein in the supplementary concentrate given after calving (soya bean or 100 g kg^-1 protected soya bean). No concentrates were offered pre-calving and all animals were given 7.6 kg d^-1 concentrates post-calving. There were no significant interactions between the system of silage harvesting and feeding. Animals on the precision-wilted silage consumed 14% more silage dry matter (10.9 vs. 9.6 kg DM d^-1) over the total period and by the end of the experiment were producing 7% less milk per day (25.4 vs. 27.2 kg). However, the responses in the output of total milk constituents (fat and protein) were lower than those obtained in milk yield. Animals offered silage by self feeding had similar dry matter intakes, but produced marginally less milk than those easy-fed. Ration digestibility and nitrogen utilization data, obtained from a concurrent change-over design experiment, suggested that the energy from the precision-wilted silage was less efficiently utilized for milk production. There was no significant response in either milk yield or composition to the inclusion of protected soya bean in the supplement.