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Method for Increased Milk Production with Rotational Grazing¹

Departments of Agronomy and Dairy Science Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, Blacksburg

ABSTRACT

The effect of high and low selective grazing by dairy cows on milk production, changes in body weight, consumption, and digestibility of dry matter ingested, was studied for three grazing seasons. A system of rotational grazing was followed; one group of cows (top grazers) grazed about half and a second group (bottom grazers) the remainder of the grazeable herbage.

The milk production from cows grazing an alfalfa-orchardgrass mixture for the first 98 days in 1955, 126 days in 1956, and the last 70 days in 1957 was 39.5, 33.1, and 36.0 lb. for the top grazers, as compared to 30.7, 27.6, and 27.8 lb. for the bottom grazers, respectively. For the groups not fed shelled corn, the milk production of the top grazers was 25, 53, and 49% greater, respectively, than the bottom grazers for the above comparison periods.

During the first 49 days in 1957 that cows grazed Ladino clover-orchardgrass, the top grazers averaged 43.6 lb. of milk daily, as compared to 35.2 lb. for the bottom grazers. Top grazers not fed shelled corn produced 41% more milk daily than the bottom grazers not fed shelled corn.

Changes in body weight between the cows due to treatments were not statistically significant.

The data from the chemical analyses of the forages before and after top and bottom grazing indicate that the bottom grazers consumed an inferior quality forage as compared with top grazers. In 1956, the top grazers' average daily forage consumption was 33.4 lb. of dry matter (64.4% digestible), as compared to a consumption of 28.5 lb. of dry matter (61.8% digestible) by the bottom grazers.

¹ This work was partially supported by the Old Dominion Foundation.

² Present address: Southeastern Baptist Seminary, Wake Forest, North Carolina.

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