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Grain-Equivalent of Immature Alfalfa for Milk Production When Fed as Soilage and as Silage¹

Departments of Dairy, Farm Crops, and Agricultural Chemistry Michigan State University, East Lansing

ABSTRACT

This investigation reports the effects on milk production of replacing either all or part of the grain or hay with immature alfalfa soilage and silage. Replacing either silage or soilage for part of the hay in an all-hay ration increased daily FCM, and replacing all of the hay with silage increased daily FCM on less TDN than the cows received on the hay ration. The silage and the soilage were equal in grain-equivalent for milk production on a dry-matter basis. Editor.

The relative grain-equivalent value for milk production of immature alfalfa fed as soilage and as silage has not been studied extensively. With the exception of pasture, soilage was probably the first method of feeding roughages to cattle. It was called soilage because freshly harvested roughage was placed on the ground for livestock to eat. The early literature on soilage was reviewed by Kildee et al. (4). Prior to the development of adequate machinery, the soilage system of livestock feeding required too much hand-labor.

¹ Published with the approval of the Director of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station as Journal Article No. 1944.