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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Madison, Wisconsin » U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #118577
Title: MILK PRODUCTION OF FALL-CALVING COWS DURING SUMMER GRAZING

Author
item Satter, Larry
item WU, ZHIGUO - UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
item KANNEGANTI, V
item Massingill, Lee

Submitted to: Journal of Dairy Science
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/24/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: To better capitalize on the potential economic advantage of grazing, as well as the cow's milking potential in early lactation, a fall-calving strategy was evaluated for 2 years. In each year, cows calved during September and October. After calving, cows were fed a TMR, then grazed from April to August for 11 weeks in year 1 and 18 weeks in year 2. In year 1, the pasture had two distinct types of paddocks, one containing mixed grasses only and one containing mixed grasses, white clover, and red clover. In year 2, all paddocks were similar, containing almost all grass. A supplement mix was fed during grazing at 6.2 kg/d in year 1 and 7.9 kg/d in year 2 (DM basis). In year 1, 27 cows grazed the grass paddocks and 13 grazed the mixed paddocks. In year 2, 40 cows grazed grass paddocks as one group. Milk yield during the grazing season in year 1 averaged 19.1 and 20.4 kg/d for the all-grass pasture and the grass-legume pasture, respectively. The yield declined 2.2 kg/d the first week cows were turned out to pasture for the two groups, with the decline being less with the grass-legume pasture than for the all-grass pasture. Milk yield averaged 21.4 kg/d during grazing in year 2, with a decline of 4.2 kg/d occurring in the first week. Milk production for 308 d of lactation was: year 1, 8873 kg for cows on all grass, and 9145 kg for the mixed grass-legume pasture; year 2, 10055 kg for cows on all-grass pasture. Production was markedly higher for these fall-calved cows pastured in late lactation compared to spring-calved cows pastured in early lactation under similar conditions (7114 kg, [Dhiman and Satter, 1996]). While milk production still declined in late lactation upon turning cows out to pasture, the cumulative loss was much less than with early-lactation cows.