DM on target for dairy diet
DM on target for dairy diet
TARGET maize harvesting to achieve a crop of 28 to 32% dry matter for the best performance of dairy cows fed on high maize diets.
So advises CEDARs Richard Phipps following a Milk Development Council-funded study on maize maturity last winter. Cows were fed forage comprising 75% maize silage at either 23%, 29%, 30% and 39% dry matter and 11%, 27%, 31% and 35% starch respectively. This was fed with 11.1 ME grass silage, and 10kg of concentrates to give equal protein supply to the early lactation cows.
Inclusion of 23% dry matter maize silage improved feed intakes by 1.7kg compared with grass silage alone at 9.2kg, milk yield increased to 29.4kg from 28kg and protein was 3.24% compared with 3.06%.
"As the crop dry matter increased to 29% and 30% so these advantages increased," says Dr Phipps. At 30% dry matter intakes were 13.1kg, and milk yield 33kg.
"But there was little performance advantage with the 39% dry matter maize crop." This resulted in DM intakes of 12.8kg, and a milk yield of 30.8kg.n
Richard Phipps: Harvest maize crops at 28-32% DM for best results..