Quentin Lardy
Forsker
(+47) 901 89 130
quentin.lardy@nibio.no
Sted
Steinkjer
Besøksadresse
Innocamp Steinkjer, Skolegata 22, Bygg P 1. etasje, 7713 Steinkjer
Sammendrag
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Sammendrag
High pasture allowance in the feed ration during the grazing season is an important resource, particularly for organic dairy farmers, as pasture intake directly affects the overall efficiency of these systems. The timing of fresh pasture provision to dairy cows could affect pasture utilisation, due to diurnal changes in herbage chemical composition and cows’ motivation to graze. This study examined the effect of time of allocation of fresh pasture on milk production and behaviour in 60 dairy cows fitted with Nedap SmartTag neck sensors. The cows were offered strip grazing with a high herbage allowance (>40 kg DM/cow/d) after either morning milking (treatment AM; n = 30) or afternoon milking (treatment PM; n = 30). Cows were milked twice daily (0500 and 1500 h) and individually received 4 kg grain-mix per day. Adaptation to treatment was implemented for two weeks, followed by five days of recordings. The PM and AM pasture offered had on average a metabolisable energy content of 12.3 and 12.1 MJ/kg dry matter, respectively, and did not differ in herbage composition. Total grazing time was longer (P < 0.001) for PM than for AM cows (576 and 520 min/cow/d, respectively). Conversely, total rumi nation time was shorter (P < 0.001) for PM than for AM cows (409 and 469 min/cow/d, respectively). Cows in the PM group had higher (P = 0.009) energy-corrected milk (ECM) yield than cows in the AM group (28.6 and 26.0 kg ECM/cow/d; respectively). Even though both groups were on full-time grazing, a simple change in grazing management by providing access to fresh pasture in the afternoon resulted in more time spent grazing and increased ECM yield. Taking cows’ grazing motivation into account when timing fresh pasture allocation can thus be beneficial in increasing efficiency on full-time pasture.
Sammendrag
This study investigates cow behaviour when visiting two GreenFeed Emission Monitoring (GEM) units within a Part-Time Grazing (PTG) system. Two separate PTG systems were assessed in Sweden and Norway, involving Nordic Red and Norwegian Red dairy cows, respectively. In Sweden, 24 cows were allocated to treatments with restricted access to pasture, either daytime or nighttime grazing. Meanwhile, the Norwegian PTG involved 33 cows with free pasture access, categorized by varying training levels (Partially or Fully). In both PTG systems, cows were exposed to GEM units positioned indoors (Indoor) and in the grazing pastures (Pasture), with individual visitations recorded. Significant variations in visitation patterns were observed. In the restricted access PTG, Nighttime grazing access cows exhibited reduced visits to the Indoor GEM unit but increased visits to the Pasture GEM unit compared to Daytime grazing. Conversely, within the free access PTG, fully trained cows demonstrated elevated visits to the pasture GEM unit and total visits compared to their partially trained counterparts. These findings highlight the influence of temporal conditions and training levels on cow-visiting behaviour within PTG systems.