Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T17:26:10.068Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Restricting dairy cow access time to pasture in early lactation: the effects on milk production, grazing behaviour and dry matter intake

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2011

E. Kennedy ,
J. Curran ,
B. Mayes ,
M. McEvoy ,
J. P. Murphy  and
M. O'Donovan
E. Kennedy*
Affiliation:
Grassland Science Research Department, Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Teagasc, Moorepark, Fermoy, Co. Cork, Ireland
J. Curran
Affiliation:
Grassland Science Research Department, Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Teagasc, Moorepark, Fermoy, Co. Cork, Ireland
B. Mayes
Affiliation:
The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB15 8QH, Scotland, UK
M. McEvoy
Affiliation:
Grassland Science Research Department, Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Teagasc, Moorepark, Fermoy, Co. Cork, Ireland
J. P. Murphy
Affiliation:
Grassland Science Research Department, Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Teagasc, Moorepark, Fermoy, Co. Cork, Ireland
M. O'Donovan
Affiliation:
Grassland Science Research Department, Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Teagasc, Moorepark, Fermoy, Co. Cork, Ireland
*
†E-mail: Emer.Kennedy@teagasc.ie
Get access

Abstract

One of the main aims of pasture-based systems of dairy production is to increase the proportion of grazed grass in the diet. This is most easily achieved by increasing the number of grazing days. However, periods of inclement weather conditions can reduce the number of days at pasture. The two objectives of this experiment were: (i) to investigate the effect of restricting pasture access time on animal production, grazing behaviour and dry matter intake (DMI) of spring calving dairy cows in early lactation; and (ii) to establish whether silage supplementation is required when cows return indoors after short grazing periods. In all, 52 Holstein–Friesian spring calving dairy cows were assigned to a four-treatment study from 25 February to 26 March 2008. The four treatments were: full-time access to pasture (22H; control); 4.5-h- pasture access after both milkings (2 × 4.5H); 3-h pasture access after both milkings (2 × 3H); 3-h pasture access after both milkings with silage supplementation by night (2 × 3SH). All treatments were offered 14.4 kg DM/cow per day herbage from swards, with a mean pre-grazing yield of 1739 kg DM/ha above 4 cm, – and were supplemented with 3 kg DM/cow per day of concentrate. The 2 × 3SH treatment was offered an additional 4 kg DM/cow of grass silage by night. Restricting pasture access time (2 × 3H, 2 × 3SH and 2 × 4.5H) had no effect on milk (28.3 kg/cow per day) and solids-corrected milk (27.2 kg/cow per day) yield when compared with the treatment grazing full time. Supplementing animals with grass silage did not increase milk production when compared with all other treatments. Milk protein concentration tended to be lower (P = 0.08; 32.2 g/kg) for the 2 × 3SH animals when compared with the 22H animals (33.7 g/kg). The grass DMI of the 2 × 3SH treatment was significantly lower (−2.3 kg DM/cow per day) than all other treatments (11.9 kg DM/cow per day), yet the total DMI of these animals was highest (16.6 kg DM/cow per day). The 22H cows grazed for 481 min/cow per day, which is significantly longer than all other treatments. The 2 × 3H animals grazed for 98% of the time, whereas the 2 × 3SH grazed for 79% of their time at pasture. Restricting pasture access time did not affect end body weight or body condition score. The results of this study indicate that restricting pasture access time of dairy cows in early lactation does not affect milk production performance. Furthermore, supplementing cows with grass silage does not increase milk production but reduces grazing efficiency.

Keywords

restricted accesspasturegrazing behaviourmilk productionsilage supplementation
Type
Full Paper
Information
animal , Volume 5 , Issue 11 , 26 September 2011 , pp. 1805 - 1813
Copyright
Copyright © The Animal Consortium 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albright, JL 1993. Feeding behaviour of dairy cattle. Journal of Dairy Science 76, 485–498.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) 1995. Official methods of analysis, vol. I, 16th edition. AOAC, Arlington, VA.Google Scholar
Chilibroste, P, Tamminga, S, Boer, H 1997. Effects of length of grazing session, rumen fill and starvation time before grazing on dry-matter intake, ingestive behaviour and dry-matter rumen pool sizes of grazing lactating dairy cows. Grass and Forage Science 52, 249–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Creighton, P, Kennedy, E, Shalloo, L, Boland, TM, O’ Donovan, M 2011. A survey analysis of grassland dairy farming in Ireland, investigating grassland management, technology adoption and the frequency and methods of sward renewal. Grass and Forage Science 66, 251–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dillon, P 1993. The use of n-alkanes as markers to determine intake, botanical composition of available or consumed herbage in studies of digesta kinetics with dairy cows. PhD thesis, National University of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland.Google Scholar
Dillon, P, Stakelum, G 1989. Herbage and dosed alkanes as a grass management technique for dairy cows. Irish Journal of Agricultural Research 8, 104 (Abstract).Google Scholar
Dillon, P, Crosse, S, O'Brien, B, Mayes, RW 2002. The effect of forage type and level of concentrate supplementation on the performance of spring-calving dairy cows in early lactation. Grass and Forage Science 57, 212–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dillon, P, Roche, JR, Shalloo, L, Horan, B 2005. Optimising financial return from grazing in temperate pastures. In XX International Grassland Congress, Utilisation of Grazed Grass in Temperate Animal Systems. Cork Satellite (ed. JJ Murphy), pp. 131–147. Wageningen Academic Publishers, The Netherlands.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dove, H, Moore, AD 1995. Using a least-squares optimization procedure to estimate botanical composition based on the alkanes of plant cuticular wax. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 46, 1535–1544.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardiner, MJ, Radford, T 1980. Ireland: general soil map, 2nd edition. Teagasc (formerly An Foras Taluntais), Dublin.Google Scholar
Greenwood, GB, Demment, MW 1988. The effect of fasting on short-term cattle grazing behaviour. Grass and Forage Science 43, 377–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hameleers, A, Mayes, RW 1998. The use of n-alkanes to estimate supplementary grass silage intake in grazing dairy cows. The Journal of Agricultural Science 131, 205–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iason, GR, Mantecon, AR, Sim, DA, Gonzalez, J, Foreman, E, Bermudez, FF, Elston, DA 1999. Can grazing sheep compensate for a daily foraging time constraint? Journal of Animal Ecology 68, 87–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, E, McEvoy, M, Murphy, JP, O'Donovan, M 2009. Effect of restricted access time to pasture on dairy cow milk production, grazing behavior, and dry matter intake. Journal of Dairy Science 92, 168–176.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kennedy, E, O'Donovan, M, Murphy, JP, O'Mara, FP, Delaby, L 2006. The effect of initial spring grazing date and subsequent stocking rate on the grazing management, grass dry matter intake and milk production of dairy cows in summer. Grass and Forage Science 61, 375–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, E, O'Donovan, M, O'Mara, FP, Murphy, JP, Delaby, L 2007. The effect of early-lactation feeding strategy on the lactation performance of spring-calving dairy cows. Journal of Dairy Science 90, 3060–3070.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kristensen, T, Oudshoorn, F, Munksgaard, L, Segaard, K 2007. Effect of time at pasture combined with restricted indoor feeding on production and behaviour in dairy cows. Animal 1, 439–448.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Linnane, MI, Brereton, AJ, Giller, PS 2001. Seasonal changes in circadian grazing patterns of Kerry cows (Bos Taurus) in semi-feral conditions in Killarney National Park, Co. Kerry, Ireland. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 71, 277–292.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Llamas-Lamas, G, Combs, DK 1991. Effect of forage to concentrate ratio and intake level on utilization of early vegetative alfalfa silage by dairy cows. Journal of Dairy Science 74, 526–536.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lowman, BG, Scott, N, Somerville, S 1976. Condition scoring of cattle. Revised edition. Bulletin no. 6. East of Scotland College of Agriculture, Edinburgh, UK.Google Scholar
Mayes, RW, Lamb, CS, Colgrove, PA 1986. The use of dosed herbage n-alkanes as markers for the determination of herbage intake. Journal of Agricultural Science (Cambridge) 107, 161–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, DJ, Stakelum, G, Dwyer, J 1989. Modified neutral detergent cellulase digestibility procedure for use with the ‘Fibertec’ system. Irish Journal of Agricultural Research 28, 91–92.Google Scholar
Morrison, SJ, Patterson, DC 2007. The effects of offering a range of forage and concentrate supplements on milk production and dry matter intake of grazing dairy cows. Grass and Forage Science 62, 332–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McEvoy, M, Delaby, L, Kennedy, E, Boland, TM, O'Donovan, M 2009. Early lactation dairy cows: development of equations to predict intake and milk performance at grazing. Livestock Science 122, 214–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pérez-Ramírez, E, Delagarde, R, Delaby, L 2008. Herbage intake and behavioural adaption of grazing dairy cows by restricting time at pasture under two feeding conditions. Animal 2, 1384–1392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pérez-Ramírez, E, Peyraud, JL, Delagarde, R 2009. Restricting daily time at pasture at low and high pasture allowance: effects on pasture intake and behavioral adaptation of lactating dairy cows. Journal of Dairy Science 92, 3331–3340.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peyraud, JL, Comeron, EA, Wade, MH, Lemaire, G 1996. The effect of daily herbage allowance, herbage mass and animal factors upon herbage intake by grazing dairy cows. Annales de Zootechnie 45, 201–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, CJC 1988. The use of conserved forage as a supplement for grazing dairy cows. Grass and Forage Science 43, 215–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, CJC, Leaver, JD 1985. Supplementary feeding of forage to grazing dairy cows. 2. Offering grass silage in early and late season. Grass and Forage Science 40, 193–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pulido, RG, Leaver, JD 2003. Continuous and rotational grazing of dairy cows – the interactions of grazing system with level of milk yield, sward height and concentrate level. Grass and Forage Science 58, 265–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rego, OA, Regalo, SMM, Rosa, HJD, Alves, SP, Borba, AES, Bessa, RJB, Cabrita, ARJ, Fonseca, AJM 2008. Effects of grass silage and soybean meal supplementation on milk production and milk fatty acid profiles of grazing dairy cows. Journal of Dairy Science 91, 2736–2743.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rook, AJ, Huckle, CA, Penning, PD 1994. Effects of sward height and concentrate supplementation on the ingestive behaviour of spring-calving dairy cows grazing grass-clover swards. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 40, 101–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutter, SM 2000. ‘Graze’: a program to analyse recordings of jaw movements of ruminants. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments and Computers 32, 86–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rutter, SM, Champion, RA, Penning, PD 1997. An automatic system to record foraging behaviour in free-ranging ruminants. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 54, 185–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Statistical Analysis Systems Institute 2002. User's guide: statistics. SAS Institute, Cary, NC. USA.Google Scholar
Shalloo, L, Dillon, P, O'Loughlin, J, Rath, M, Wallace, M 2004. Comparison of a pasture-based system of milk production on a high rainfall, heavy-clay soil with that on a lower rainfall, free-draining soil. Grass and Forage Science 59, 157–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyrell, HF, Reid, JT 1965. Prediction of the energy value of cows’ milk. Journal of Dairy Science 48, 1215–1233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Urban, B, Caudal, JP 1990. Herbometre automatise (automatic platemeter). Les journées de la mesure. Électronique, informatique, automatique, Port Leucate, France, pp. 57–59. INRA, Paris, France.Google Scholar