Feeding Systems with Legumes to Intensify Dairy Farms - cgiar

Table 1. Average milk production, total solids content, and cost:benefit
ratio of dual-purpose cows receiving supplements of different
protein sources (Experiment 1).
Treatment Milk
production
(kg/cow)
Total
solids
(%)
Fat
(%)
Cost of
supplement
(US$/kg)
63
Price of milk
(US$/kg)
Cost:benefit
ratio
1 5.5 b* 11.2 3.1 - 0.235 -
2 5.9 a b 11.5 3.2 0.109 0.241 2.2
3 6.3 a 11.2 2.9 0.217 0.235 1.1
* Values in the same column followed by the same letter do not differ significantly (P = 0.076),
according to Waller-Duncan’s test.
Experiment 2. Milk production was highest in the treatment in which
fresh C. argentea was offered; however, this treatment did not differ
statistically from the treatment offering chicken manure or from the
treatment offering ensiled Cratylia (Table 2).
The silage obtained was highly palatable and of good quality (pH 4.5,
16.5% CP, and 36% DM). Silage quality can accordingly be ranked as
excellent (González et al., 1990).
Milk quality did not differ among treatments; however, total solids and
fat in milk were slightly higher in T1 (ensiled C. argentea) and T2 (fresh C.
argentea) than in T3, which included chicken manure.
The lowest production costs occurred in T2 and the highest in T3.
However, the highest income per sale of milk was obtained with T1 and the
lowest with T3. These results indicate that the highest economic benefit was
obtained with T2, followed by T1 and T3.
Table 2. Average milk production, total solids content, and cost:benefit ratio
in dual-purpose cows supplemented with different sources of
protein (Experiment 2).
Treatment Milk
production
(kg/cow)
Total
solids
(%)
Fat
(%)
Cost of
supplement
(US$/kg)
Price of milk
(US$/kg)
Cost:benefit
ratio
1 5.1 b* 12.3 3.6 0.164 0.260 1.6
2 5.5 a 12.2 3.4 0.109 0.256 2.3
3 5.3 a b 11.7 3.0 0.217 0.245 1.1
* Values in the same column followed by the same letter do not differ significantly (P = 0.08),
according to Waller-Duncan’s test.