The Effect of Grazing System and Level of Concentrate Protein Feeding on Milk Production and N Use Efficiency of Dairy Cows on Peat Meadows

Nyncke Hoekstra, Gertjan Holshof, Ronald Zom, Bert Philipsen, René Schils and Nick van Eekeren
Additional contact information
Nyncke Hoekstra: Louis Bolk Institute, Kosterijland 3–5, 3981 AJ Bunnik, The Netherlands
Gertjan Holshof: Animal Nutrition, Wageningen University and Research, 6708 WD Wageningen, The Netherlands
Ronald Zom: Animal Nutrition, Wageningen University and Research, 6708 WD Wageningen, The Netherlands
Bert Philipsen: Animal Nutrition, Wageningen University and Research, 6708 WD Wageningen, The Netherlands
René Schils: Agrosystems Research, Wageningen Plant Research, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands
Nick van Eekeren: Louis Bolk Institute, Kosterijland 3–5, 3981 AJ Bunnik, The Netherlands

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-16

Abstract: The aim of the study was to assess the effect of two contrasting grazing systems, strip-grazing and kurzrasen, at a high stocking rate on herbage intake and milk production and quality on a peat meadow. Additionally, we assessed the effect of the level of crude protein (CP) fed in concentrate on milk production and N use efficiency. Even at the relatively high stocking rates, cows still achieved substantial fresh grass intake (on average >6 kg dry matter cow −1 day −1 ) from both systems. Despite the lower level of gross grass production under kurzrasen management, the difference in milk production between kurzrasen and strip-grazing was small and non-significant. Feeding concentrate with a lower CP level, had no negative impact on milk yield, provided that the CP content of the total ration remained above ~150 g kg −1 DM and milk urea content was above ~18 mg 100 g −1 milk. Reducing the CP content in the concentrate significantly increased the N use efficiency, and both were strongly related to the milk urea content. Therefore, optimising the use of milk urea as a management tool on dairy farms, also during the grazing season, could reduce N losses to the environment, while maintaining productivity.

Keywords: kurzrasen; strip-grazing; FPCM; fat and protein corrected milk yield; milk urea (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/3/1055/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/3/1055/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:3:p:1055-:d:315571

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().