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Comparison of Alfalfa Hay and Alfalfa Silage as Roughage for Growing Dairy Heifers in a Limited Milk and Grain Feeding System

Dairy Husbandry Research Branch, USDA, Beltsville, Md.

ABSTRACT

Several investigators have shown that satisfactory growth of dairy heifers may be obtained when hay, hay and pasture, or hay and corn silage are the only feeds provided from 6 to 24 or 12 to 24 months of age (4, 5, 11). Converse (3) also has shown that dairy heifers make satisfactory growth when alfalfa hay, alone or combined with other hays or corn silage, was the only feed fed from 8 or 9 to 24 months of age. In that work milk feeding was discontinued at 60 days of age and grain feeding at 8 or 9 months of age. Grain feeding was also limited to the extent that a total of about 560 lb. per heifer was fed from birth to 8 or 9 months of age. With the exception of the feeds fed in the Oregon study (11), these are the smallest recorded quantities of milk and grain that have been fed in high roughage rations for rearing dairy heifers to 24 months of age.

¹ Retired February 28, 1950.