Performance of mid-lactating dairy cows fed a grain sorghum-soybean silage base diet

摘要

Whole-plant silage from intercropped grainsorghum and Williams 82 soybean was comparedto corn silage in a mixed diet for mid-lactationdairy cows. Cows fed the grain sorghum-soybeansilage yielded 45.13 lb and those fed corn silageyielded 44.05 lb of fat (4%)-corrected milk daily.Milk yield, milk fat, and milk lactose percentageswere similar between cows fed the two silages.Protein and solids non-fat percentages for thecows fed the corn silage diet were .09 and .06units greater than those of cows fed the grainsorghum silage. Cows fed the corn silage tendedto gain more (+105.8 lb) than those fed the grainsorghum-soybean silage (+95.2 lb). We concludethat, if the cost for producing intercropped grainsorghum and soybean silage (ton/acre) is at leastsimilar to that of producing corn silage, the intercroppedgrain sorghum and soybean silage can besubstituted for corn silage in a mid-lactation dairycow diet.