Abstract
The objective of this study was to estimate herbage intake in Danish Holstein and Danish Jersey steers at an age of 8–9 months on ryegrass/white clover pasture. The steers were turned out on pasture in late April and herbage intake was estimated in June in steers of a mean liveweight (±S.D.) of 264±14 and 185±25 kg for Danish Holstein and Danish Jersey, respectively. Faeces and herbage samples were analysed for alkanes to estimate herbage dry matter intake, dry matter digestibility (DMD) and botanical composition of intake. The weight gains at the time of herbage intake estimation in June (kg/day) were 1.142±265 and 0.927±168 kg/day for Danish Holstein and Danish Jersey, respectively. Daily herbage intake (kg dry matter (DM)) estimated by alkanes C 32/C 33 was 8.33±0.97 and 6.28±0.61 per day ( P<0.001) and 3.15±0.32 and 3.43±0.30 per 100 kg liveweight (LW) ( P<0.05) for Danish Holstein and Danish Jersey, respectively. The botanical composition of the diet was the same for Danish Holstein and Danish Jersey with about half of the diet being grass leaves and the other half clover leaves. It is concluded that Danish Jersey steers have higher herbage intake per 100 kg LW than Danish Holstein steers of the same age, but herbage intake per kg metabolic LW is not different between the two breeds.
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