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Effect on Milk Production of Chopping Meadow Crop Once and Twice Daily

Departments of Dairy Science and Agronomy, Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, Wooster

ABSTRACT

The effect of cutting alfalfa-bromegrass once vs. twice daily for milking cows was compared over a 111-day feeding period. Treatments consisted of three rates of grain feeding—zero, quarter, and half grain—offered to the cows on each harvest schedule. The experimental animals were sorted into six groups of six cows each and the cows within a group were assigned to treatments at random.

The temperature of soilage held from the morning to the afternoon feeding, by periods of 2 wk. each, rose a minimum average of 10.8° F. in early June and a maximum average of 38.2° F. in late July. During the entire experiment the average temperature rise was 17.3° F. from the morning to the afternoon feeding and 31.0° F. from the afternoon until the morning feeding.

Average daily dry matter intakes and adjusted daily production of 4% fat-corrected milk indicate that cutting only once was not deleterious.

Either rate of grain feeding resulted in significantly higher milk production than no grain. Grain at the rate of 0.2 lb. per pound of milk above 20 for Holsteins and 0.25 for each pound of milk above 12 for Jerseys (half rate) seems justified.