2Instituto de Ciencias Agropecuarias y Rurales. Universidad Autónoma del Estado de, México.
3Centro Universitario UAEM Amecameca. Universidad Autónoma del Estado de, México.
Centro Universitario UAEM Temascaltepec. Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Mexico. Carretera Toluca-Tejupilco Km. 67.5 Pc. 52300. México.
Online published on 4 January, 2013.
The aim was to determine the productive and economic response to feeding maize silage (MS) at 3, 6 and 9 kg OM/cow/d, to continuous grazing cows with a high stocking rate and low herbage allowance during the dry season. Six Holstein cows were used in a repeated 3 x 3 latin square design. Cows received 2.5 kg/d of OM of commercial concentrate. Treatments consisted of 3, 6 and 9 kg of OM/cow/d of MS. There were no differences on response variables (P > 0.05), milk yields (19.0 kg/cow/d), fat and protein content (33.5 and 32.8 g/kg−1, respectively), live weight (473.6 kg), body condition score (1.75), and total OMI (13.86 kg/cow/d). Total feeding cost/kg of milk was $0.06, $0.07 and $0.08 (USO), for treatments 3, 6 and 9 kg/OM of MS, respectively. Increasing MS to either 6 or 9 kg/cow/d did not increase milk yields compare to 3 kg/cow/d, but it does reduce profits.
Conserved forages, Continuous grazing, Milk production, Supplementation
