Efficiency of the transfer of cows for tieless maintenance and their feeding under intensive technology of milk production

Abstract

The paper presents the results of research in the working conditions of an agricultural enterprise that studies the efficiency of double, triple and triple partly milking of cows in connection with their transfer from a fixed content to a tieless box and the addition of some green mass into the contents of the feed mix. The purpose of our research was to determine the efficiency of different ratios of green and conserved feeds in the ration of dairy cows during summer period; to study the effect of the frequency of milking on the milk productivity of the Black-and-White breed cows in the conditions of cows’ transfer to the tieless maintenance at the intensive technology of milk production. The investigation was carried out in the conditions of the agro-firm № 10 of the state enterprise “Illich Agro-Donbas”, Mariupol district, Donetsk region. The dairy cows of the Ukrainian Black-and-White breed were used in our experiment that was conducted in accordance with the generally accepted methods of the research on cattle feeding. Before the beginning of the research the cows were kept on a leash all- year- round. The experiment was carried out and during the experiment the technology of maintenance and milking of the cows in the control group remained unchanged, the cows-analogues of the second group were transferred to the new, reconstructed livestock house for the tieless maintenance, for the first hundred days of lactation the cows were milked three times a day and they were milked twice a day till the end of the lactation. The cows of the third group were under tieless conditions of maintenance and they were milked three times a day throughout the lactation period. The feeding conditions for the cows were the same, that is, the animals were fed with the balanced feed mixtures at the silage-concentrate type of feeding. The partial replacement of the brought up (mown) green feeds of the field forage production in the ration of dairy cows in stalls and under unleashed pen maintenance by high quality silage met the physiological requirement of the cows in dry matter and at the same time it increased the concentration of energy in 1 kg of the ration. The following results were obtained. When keeping the cows tied and tieless at the partial replacement of the brought up (mown) green feeds of the field forage production in the ration of lactating cows by the high quality silage better provides their physiological requirements in dry matter and at the same time it increases the energy concentration in 1 kg of the ration. The use of partly both three-time milking (for the first hundred days of lactation) and three-time milking (during the whole period of lactation) increased the milk productivity of the cows by 7.0 and 11.4%, with the simultaneous decrease in the feed costs per a unit of produce by 7.2 and 11.8%, respectively. The lactation activity of the cows that were milked twice a day was more fluent and uniform and the intensity of milk yield was significantly higher as compared with the cows of groups 2 and 3 by 29.4% and 26.5%, respectively. The economic efficiency of milk production was higher in group 2 and 3, the profit in the above groups exceeded the profit of group 1 by 4.7% and 5.4%, respectively.