Pelleted dried grass and rolled barley diets for lactating dairy cows

Abstract

SUMMARY1. Pelleted grass and a concentrate containing 90% rolled barley and 10% soya bean meal were offered to cows in three combinations, 25: 75, 50: 50 and 75: 25 respectively, together with a constant low level of coarse roughage.2. The experiment was carried out in two stages, in early lactation as a randomized block design involving 18 Jersey cows fed to appetite and in mid-lactation as a 3 × 3 Latin square change-over design involving 12 cows, rationed according to milk yield.3. There were no significant between-treatment differences in either milk yield or milk fat content in either stage of the experiment.