Feeding Systems with Legumes to Intensify Dairy Farms - cgiar

Incidence (%)
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1 2 3 4
Years (between 1996 and 1999)
B. decumbens Other grasses Weeds
Figure 3. Botanical composition of a pasture of Brachiaria decumbens alone (ECAG, Costa Rica).
Milk production and composition. Table 3 presents the milk
production/cow per day in the different treatments. The highest production
average (12.4 kg/cow per day) was found in the pasture of B. decumbens
associated with A. pintoi, being significantly higher (P < 0.011) than those
obtained in pastures of B. decumbens + H. rufa (11.7 kg/cow per day) and B.
decumbens alone (11.6 kg/cow per day). These data agree with those
obtained by Van Heurck (1990) and González (1992), in which the highest
milk production was found in a pasture of African star grass associated with
A. pintoi as compared with a pasture of African star grass alone.
It is important to highlight that, although the Jersey cows used in the
trial received as supplement a feed concentrate of 14% CP and 2.4 Mcal ME,
the beneficial effect of Arachis on milk production could still be observed.
Table 3 shows the components of the milk obtained from the different
pastures. A higher fat content (P < 0.0004) was found in milk from cows
grazing pastures of B. decumbens associated with A. pintoi (4.84%) and B.
decumbens alone (4.85%). This value for the pasture of B. decumbens + H.
rufa was 4.71%. Cipagauta et al. (1998) found similar milk fat values in B.
decumbens + A. pintoi pastures in the Colombian Amazon region, but fat
content of milk produced by cows grazing B. decumbens alone was even
lower than the native pasture. These results, however, differed with those
found by González (1992) in which the percentage of fat did not differ among
the three pastures evaluated.
8