Yield from forages

17 October 1997

Yield from forages

COWS fed two-thirds of their forage as low or high starch whole-crop wheat failed to perform better than those fed grass silage alone.

That was the result of an MDC funded study at Harper Adams College, Shropshire.

Cows were offered high quality grass silage at 11.7 ME and averaged about 30 litres across all treatments – weeks six to 20 of lactation – off 11kg of concentrate a head a day.

Cows on grass silage alone ate 9kg of forage, while the low starch whole-crop fed cows ate 10.7kg of forage and those on the high starch type 11.5kg. Yields averaged 29.8, 30.1 and 30.7kg, respectively, across the three treatments. &#42