Early lactation responses to red clover or ryegrass silages offered to dairy cows during the dry period

Abstract

Energy and protein supply during the dry period can affect subsequent milk production and composition (Moorby et al., 1996). Grass silage is a common ingredient of dry cow diets, but although it is usually adequate in crude protein concentration (CP), a high proportion is frequently in non-protein forms. Red clover silage has shown interesting characteristics that would increase true protein supply to ruminants (Broderick et al., 2000), which could avoid the use of more expensive concentrate supplements. The objective of this experiment was to compare red clover and ryegrass silage when fed as the sole source of forage to dry cows with a diet comprising ryegrass silage and a protein supplement.