Effect on Milk Yield of Moving Cows from Group to Group

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Guernsey cows (103) were assigned randomly to 2 management regimes: stratified and control. Stratified contained 75% of the cows which were further allotted to 3 subgroups (high, medium and low) according to 4% fat-corrected milk production and regrouped at 30 day intervals. The remaining 25% of the herd (control) were managed in 1 group for the duration of the trial. Blended rations were offered to all groups with high and control cows receiving rations designed to meet 110% of the requirements for the average production of their respective group. Medium and low cows received rations based on 100% of the requirements for their average group production. Average daily milk weights were standardized for age and month of calving and summarized on all cows 5 days before and after each monthly regrouping date. Differences between means of average daily milk for the 5 days before and after regrouping were not significantly different from 0 for the control, high, medium or low groups. The pooled mean difference for average daily milk between periods for all stratified animals was not significantly different from the mean difference of the control group.