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Response of Dairy Cows to Two Systems of Distributing Annual Total Digestible Nutrients Over the Lactation Cycle¹

Department of Animal Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh 27607

ABSTRACT

Dairy cows fed total digestible nutrients in equal daily amounts (Treatment 1) were compared with cows fed a majority, 60.8%, of their annual total digestible nutrients in the first 180 days postpartum (Treatment 2). One, two, or three lactations per cow were obtained from a herd of Holsteins and Brown Swiss (Herd 1) and a herd of Jerseys (Herd 2). Average 180-day 4% fat-corrected milk yields (lactations combined) for Treatments 1 and 2 were 3,- 698 and 4,207 kg in Herd 1 and 2,817 and 3,186 kg in Herd 2. The 180-day fat-corrected milk was greater for Treatment 2 in second and third lactations in Herd 2 but did not differ significantly between treatments in first, second, or third lactations in Herd 1 or in the first lactation in Herd 2. Annual (351 days in milk or less) fat-corrected milk yields for Treatments 1 and 2 were 5,516 and 5,806 kg in Herd 1 and 4,385 and 4,604 kg in Herd 2. Milk fat percent essentially was unaffected by treatment. Milk protein percent and, to a lesser extent, solids-not-fat percent were lower for Treatment 1. Annual weight gain was greater for Treatment 1 in the first lactation in Herd 1 but was not different significantly between treatments in all other groups. Annual fat-corrected milk/total digestible nutrients did not differ significantly between treatments in any lactation in either herd.

¹ Paper 3768 of the Journal Series of the North Carolina State University Experiment Station, Raleigh.