Feeding Systems with Legumes to Intensify Dairy Farms - cgiar
Feeding Systems with Legumes to Intensify Dairy Farms - cgiar
Feeding Systems with Legumes to Intensify Dairy Farms - cgiar
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U = overall mean<br />
Tj = effect of the n-nth treatment (i=3)<br />
Eij = experimental error<br />
Treatments were as follows: T1, cut-and-carry grass (king grass)<br />
restricted <strong>to</strong> milking; T2, 50% amount of cut-and-carry grass<br />
provided in T1 and 50% of Centrosema provided in T3, restricted <strong>to</strong><br />
milking; and T3, 100% Centrosema restricted <strong>to</strong> milking.<br />
Milking was done manually, once a day <strong>with</strong> calf on foot. After milking,<br />
calves were allowed <strong>to</strong> suckle for 5 minutes and were then transferred <strong>to</strong><br />
pens. Crossbred dairy Gyr x Holstein cows were used and left <strong>to</strong> graze on the<br />
pasture 6 hours/day, after which they were taken <strong>to</strong> a pen where they<br />
received chopped king grass.<br />
Control variables were: consumption of supplementary forage; milk<br />
production, kg/cow per day during periods of maximum and minimum<br />
precipitation; production costs of supplementary feed: and economic<br />
evaluation of results.<br />
To measure consumption of supplementary forage (kg DM/cow per<br />
day), Centrosema and king grass were separately cut, carried, and chopped<br />
<strong>with</strong> machete and supplied at milking. Forage on offer and forage rejected<br />
were moni<strong>to</strong>red the first 15 days of adjustment <strong>to</strong> determine the amount of<br />
forage needed during the experimental phase and thus estimate average<br />
intake per treatment.<br />
Milk production (kg/cow per day) was measured 4 days per week. To<br />
date of this report, production data had already been determined for two<br />
periods of maximum and minimum precipitation.<br />
Costs of producing supplementary feed considered establishment costs<br />
and maintenance costs per hectare and the cost of cutting and transporting<br />
forage.<br />
The following evaluations were carried out <strong>to</strong> calculate <strong>to</strong>tal volume of<br />
forage (C. macrocarpum and king grass)/ha per year: forage availability (kg<br />
DM/ha) in random samples taken at the beginning of each grazing cycle;<br />
time of pasture recovery: and pasture coverage at 20, 45, and 60 days after<br />
initiating grazing.<br />
Economic merit was evaluated using the following formula:<br />
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