Evaluation of Systems for Feeding Supplemental Concentrate to Cows in Groups

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Abstract
A herd of 211 Holstein cows plus heifers calving subsequently was stratified into equal performance groups that were assigned randomly to 3 feeding system subherds fed for 68 wk: 1) bunk-fed silage mixture plus concentrate individually via transponder control; 2)1-group total mixed ration; and 3) a 2-group total mixed ration system with respective ratios of forage:concentrate: 1) 48:52, 2) 56:44 and 3) 55:45 with 42:58 for the first 24 wk of lactation and 72:28 for the remainder. Respective average dry matter intakes (kg/cow per day) for the 3 feeding systems were forage 8.6, 10.3 and 10.1 and concentrate 9.3, 8.0 and 8.3. Cows fed concentrate via transponder control produced significantly more milk than cows in the 1- or 2-group total mixed ration systems, 2.7 and 3.8 kg/cow per day. Calculated intakes of net energy lactation (Mcal/cow per day) were 29.0, 28.8 and 29.1 for the 3 subherds, but relative to milk energy output, corresponding efficiencies were 61.0, 54.4 and 51.0%. Cows averaged 14 daily visits to the feeders with a range of 2-32. There were low correlations between concentrate allocation and number of feeder visits and concentrate allocation and total time spent in feeder. Returns over feeding system costs are stated.

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