Performance and income over feed costs when feeding alfalfa or grass hays and corn or wheat grains to high-producing dairy cows

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dc.contributor.authorFerreira, Gonzaloen
dc.contributor.authorTeets, Christy L.en
dc.contributor.departmentDairy Scienceen
dc.date.accessioned2020-12-07T19:34:45Zen
dc.date.available2020-12-07T19:34:45Zen
dc.date.issued2020-10en
dc.description.abstractObjective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the production performance, nutrient digestibility, and income over feed cost (IOFC) of high-producing dairy cows consuming diets containing alfalfa or grass hays with either corn or wheat grain. Materials and Methods: Twenty-four Holstein cows were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 diets in a replicated 4 x 4 Latin square design with a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement of treatments (hay and grain types) and 21-d periods. Diets were formulated using a least-cost approach. To determine revenues from milk produced, the amount of ECM (kg-d(-1)) was multiplied by $0.303-kg(-1) (i.e., class III milk price; US Federal Milk Marketing Order 5). The cost of the ration provided by the formulation software ($-cow(-1).d(-1)) was divided by the predicted DMI (kg-cow(-1)-d(-1)) to obtain the cost of feed ($-kg(-1)), which was then multiplied by DMI (kg-cow(-1).d(-1)) to provide the actual daily feed cost ($.cow(-1).d(-1)). Results and Discussion: Cows consuming diets containing alfalfa hay consumed more DM than cows consuming diets with grass hay (27.1 vs. 24.4 kg-d(-1)). Cows consuming diets containing alfalfa hay produced more milk than cows consuming diets containing grass hay (47.5 vs. 44.7 kg-d(-1)). Milk from cows consuming diets containing grass hay had greater fat concentrations than milk from cows consuming diets containing alfalfa hay (4.22 vs. 3.89%). Using hay prices of $418 and $154-t(-1) respectively, for alfalfa and grass hays, diets containing grass hay resulted in greater IOFC than diets containing alfalfa hay ($8.39-d(-1) vs. $7.68-d(-1), respectively). Implications and Applications: Results of this study showed that IOFC can be supported when feeding grass hay using a least-cost ration formulation approach.en
dc.description.notesWe are extremely thankful to Virginia Tech undergraduate students Claudia Bollinger, Kirby Lingenfelser, and Elizabeth Pittman for their assistance feeding the cows and collecting samples. This project was funded mostly by the Virginia Agricultural Council (Project No. 718-Effects of feeding wheat grain on production performance and nutrient digestibility of lactating dairy cows consuming diets containing high-and low-quality hay) and partially by USDA-NIFA Multistate Project VA-136291 (NC2042 Management Systems to Improve the Economic and Environmental Sustainability of Dairy Enterprises).en
dc.description.sponsorshipVirginia Agricultural Council [718]; USDA-NIFA Multistate Project [VA-136291, NC2042]en
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.15232/aas.2020-02023en
dc.identifier.eissn2590-2865en
dc.identifier.issn2590-2873en
dc.identifier.issue5en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/101032en
dc.identifier.volume36en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/en
dc.subjectleast-cost formulationen
dc.subjectmanagementen
dc.subjectprofitabilityen
dc.subjectcost controlen
dc.titlePerformance and income over feed costs when feeding alfalfa or grass hays and corn or wheat grains to high-producing dairy cowsen
dc.title.serialApplied Animal Scienceen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
dc.type.dcmitypeStillImageen

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