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Effect of Initial Level of Milk Production on Response to Forages of Varying Quality

Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station, Experiment

ABSTRACT

The persistency of milk production was found not to be related to the initial level of milk production in a 42-day trial, using eight cows with different levels of production, allowed only good pasture. On a within-period basis, the respective correlations between level of actual and 4% FCM and persistency of milk production were –.007 and –.097. On a within-cow basis, the respective repeatabilities for actual and 4% FCM were .373 and .367. When the data were corrected for period effects, the repeatabilities were .810 and .654.

Using data from several feeding trials with pasture and silage, the relative persistency of cows at varying levels of milk production was studied when cows were fed forages of different qualities. Within forage quality, the correlations between initial milk production and percentage change in milk production ranged from –.067 to .251. None approached significance. When the data were studied by regression techniques, there was evidence that low-quality forages were more detrimental to high producers than to low producers. High-quality forages were equally capable of maintaining milk production on cows producing 20 to 50 lb. of milk per day.