Factors Affecting the Consumption of Sudan Grass by Dairy Cows

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Abstract
Investigations of factors affecting the consumption of sudan grass were made over a six-year period. In each of the first 2 years 3 cows were hand-fed cut forage while in each of the remaining 4 years 3 cows were hand-fed cut forage and 3 cows simultaneously allowed to graze. A combination of "internal and external" indicators was used to determine digestibility and intake of grazed forage. The daily intake of green forage, by years, ranged from 100 lbs. in 1957 to 228 lbs. in 1953 for hand-fed cows, and ranged from 119 lbs. in 1955 to 251 lbs. in 1953 for grazing cows. The daily intake of dry matter by hand-fed cows ranged from 23.1 lbs. in 1957 to 35.1 lbs. in 1952. Each year the grazing cows consumed more forage dry matter than hand-fed cows. The range of intake was from 25.2 lbs. in 1955 to 34.2 in 1957. This extreme variation in intake indicates rather great variation in the quantity of nutrients available for milk production. Dry matter digestibility had a range from 63.6% in 1955 to 71.3% in 1951 with hand-fed cows. Digestibility of dry matter in grazing trials, which were run simultaneously with the hand-fed trials, was always about 4 percentage points higher than in the hand-fed trials. A very high correlation was noted between dry matter intake and total rainfall of the previous month (r= .985). The intake of dry matter was not significantly correlated with dry matter content of the forage (r= .317); however, intake of green forage was significantly correlated with forage dry matter content (r= - .855).

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