Fodder beets with maize and red clover silages for dairy cows

Abstract

Milk produced with maize and red clover silages as basal feeds for dairy cows contains less fat and less protein when compared with milk produced with maize silage only. Owing to their chemical composition fodder beets were suspected to be an appropriate forage to be fed with these silages in order to reduce their negative effects on milk composition. 14 lactating dairy cows were fed 20 kg of fodder beet during 13 weeks, as a complement to maize and red clover silages based diet. When compared with a control group of dairy cows fed the same basal diet only and the same level of concentrate, cows fed fodder beets produced more 4 % fat-corrected milk (+ 2 kg), more fat (+ 100 g) and more protein (+ 60 g) daily. Feeding fodder beets also increased fat and protein contents of milk (+ 2 and + 1 g/kg respectively) and reduced live weight changes of cows. The observed effect on milk fat content was probably due to modifications in the rumen fermentation pattern, while that observed on milk protein synthesis could be the result of the higher energy supply, when fodder beets were fed. Substitution of silage by fodder beets was high. However, the daily milk production attributable to the basal diet (silage plus fodder beet) was 2,5 kg higher as a consequence of the high energy content of fodder beets. The actual conversion rate of fodder beet energy into milk energy agrees well with the value proposed by INRA (1988).

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