Effect of concentrate supplementation level on production, health and efficiency in an organic dairy herd

TLDR: There were no indications of health problems associated with the reduced feeding levels, and milk production in group L+ was reduced by only 493 kg ECM per cow year as compared to group N, primarily due to a significantly improved feed conversion ratio.

About: This article is published in Livestock Production Science.The article was published on 2003-03-01 and is currently open access. It has received 56 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Feed conversion ratio & Dairy cattle.

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Table 4 Milk yield and composition per cow year, and milk production efficiency in winter periods expressed as the feed efficiency (energy requirement over actual energy intake) and as energy and dry matter intake over produced ECM

Table 3 Feed intake per cow year in the three groups in MJ NE and kg DM

Table 6 Yield of ECM (kg) in the first 24 weeks after calving for cows, which calved and carried through minimum 168 days of lactation within the experimental period: least-square means and standard errors

Table 7 lactation. However, the tendency was a higher Milk quality parameters from groups L and N: least-square means production of milk and milk protein and a lower and standard errors

Table 5 Daily production of milk, ECM, milk fat and milk protein per day in lactation. Least square means and standard errors

Table 1 Composition and quality of basal ad libitum fed rations used during winter periods, of the herbage above grazing height during grazing periods, and of the supplements allocated during the grazing seasons and the winter periods (per kg dry matter); calculated as a weighted average of the used mixtures or batches of feeds and standard error of the mean

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions in this paper?

The aim of this study was to elucidate the long-term effects of reducing or omitting concentrate supplementation to high genetic merit dairy cows on a basal ad libitum diet of clover-grass ( silage and grazing ).