Abstract
Three pasture-based systems (PS) with bermuda grass (BG) + forage peanut + 75 kg of N ha-1; BG + common vetch + 75 kg of N ha-1 and BG + 150 kg of N ha-1 were evaluated. Lactating Holstein cows were used for evaluation and the experimental design was completely randomized. Forage mass, botanical and structural composition, daily dry matter accumulation rate and stocking rate were evaluated. Samples were collected by hand-plucking method to analyze crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), (ISDMD), in situ organic matter digestibility (ISOMD) and total digestible nutrients (TDN). Average forage production and stocking rate were 13.8; 15.3 and 16.1 t ha-1 and 5.6; 6.4 and 5.5 UA ha-1 day-1 for PS respectively. Average CP and NDF were 16.4; 22.2 and 15.3%; 68.3; 65.7 and 66.3%; for ISDMD, ISOMD and TDN were 68.5; 70.3 and 66.4%; 64.3; 63.2 and 65.3%; 57.3; 58.3 and 57.5%, for PS respectively. Best results were reported on bermuda grass mixed with common vetch.
Highlights
Milk production is one of the most relevant livestock activities in Brazil especially on small and medium-sized farms (Lopes, Santos, Resende, Carvalho, & Cardoso, 2011)
Eleven grazing cycles were conducted during the period in which pasture was used (244 days), namely, three in the spring, five in the summer and three in the winter
There were no differences in forage mass between forage systems (Table 1) and mean rates are close to 2.5 t of DM ha-1, which were adequate to this type of forage (Paris, Cecato, Branco, Barbero, & Galbeiro, 2009)
Summary
Milk production is one of the most relevant livestock activities in Brazil especially on small and medium-sized farms (Lopes, Santos, Resende, Carvalho, & Cardoso, 2011). Current research assesses the production and nutrition rates of forage comprising Coastcross-1 and several legumes in pastures for the grazing of dairy cattle. Pasture components in spring had a lower participation rate of Coastcross-1 (p ≤ 0.05) in the mixture due to legumes.
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