Publication Date

1989

Location

Nice France

Description

Dairy cows have to have a large feed intake for abundant milk production. It is generally known that a decrease in digestibility of rations is associated with an increased level of feeding (Schneider and Flatt, 1975). When a ration is almost all roughage, it appears that the difference in digestibility between an abundant ration and a scanty one may not be large, but a decrease in ration digestibility with increasing intake is large markedly as the proportion of concentrate in the ration is increased. A ration consisting of whole sorghum plant silage and con­centrate develops a tendency to increase the proportion of con­centrate in the ration, because the grain contained in the whole plan is practically concentrated (Browning and Lusk, 1967). Therefore this study was done to clarify the effects on digesti­bility of sorghum silage based diets with increased levels of feeding and of the addition of hay into the diets.

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Influence of the Level of Feeding and Hay Addition on the Apparent Digestibility of Whole Crop Sorghum Silage Based Diets

Nice France

Dairy cows have to have a large feed intake for abundant milk production. It is generally known that a decrease in digestibility of rations is associated with an increased level of feeding (Schneider and Flatt, 1975). When a ration is almost all roughage, it appears that the difference in digestibility between an abundant ration and a scanty one may not be large, but a decrease in ration digestibility with increasing intake is large markedly as the proportion of concentrate in the ration is increased. A ration consisting of whole sorghum plant silage and con­centrate develops a tendency to increase the proportion of con­centrate in the ration, because the grain contained in the whole plan is practically concentrated (Browning and Lusk, 1967). Therefore this study was done to clarify the effects on digesti­bility of sorghum silage based diets with increased levels of feeding and of the addition of hay into the diets.