Feeding Systems with Legumes to Intensify Dairy Farms - cgiar

Treatments evaluated were: T1, 12 kg sugarcane + 6 kg silage of C. argentea
+ 0.6 kg rice polishing; T2, 12 kg sugarcane + 6 kg fresh C. argentea + 0.6
kg rice polishing; and T3, 12 kg sugarcane + 3 kg chicken manure + 0.6 kg
rice polishing.
A Latin square design with three treatments was used, each treatment
with two cows as in the above experiment. Animals were managed in
individual groups. The experiment lasted for 30 days and animals were
rotated on each treatment at 10-day-intervals (7 days for adjustment and 3
for data collection).
Experiment 3. This on-farm trial was conducted as part of a student
thesis program on a small farm in Barranca, located in 280 masl in the
Central Pacific region of Costa Rica. The trial was conducted in the middle
of the dry season (February-May 1998), with a mean annual temperature of
28 °C and a mean precipitation of 2,500 mm. Treatments evaluated were:
T1, chicken manure and molasses; T2, chicken manure, sugarcane,
molasses, and wheat bran, T3, chicken manure, molasses, C. argentea, and
wheat bran.
Details of the different diets are presented in Table 1. Different amounts
of supplements were used to balance the diets isonitrogenously and
isocalorificly. Cratylia argentea satisfied more than 75% of the CP
requirements of animals, but a small amount of chicken manure was
included in the diet because observed C. argentea intake was not sufficient
to balance N requirements. Animals had access to H. rufa pastures.
Cratylia CP content was 19.2% and IVDMD, 58.4%; the respective values for
H. rufa were 3.9% and 33.9%.
Table 1. Diets offered to animals and milk yields for all treatments.
Diets Consumption
Milk yield
(kg/animal per day)
(kg/cow per day)
Diet 1 5.9
Chicken manure 6.0
Molasses 2.5
Diet 2 6.0
Chicken manure 5.0
Sugarcane 5.0
Wheat bran 0.7
Molasses 0.12
Diet 3 6.1
Chicken manure 1.0
Molasses 4.12
Wheat bran 0.7
Cratylia argentea 6.0
28