Technician Melissa Goff (left) and animal
scientist Kathy Soder analyze samples of the contents of a cow's rumen.
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Scientists Study Benefits of Pasture Plant
Diversity on Dairy Production By
Jan Suszkiw
March 3, 2004
Identifying the benefits of grazing dairy cows on pasture having
diverse forage plant mixtures is the objective of a cooperative study by
scientists with the Agricultural Research
Service and Pennsylvania State University (PSU).
One interest is determining whether such pasture can tolerate
heavy grazing better than pasture with only one or two forage plant species. A
second interest is finding out what effect pasture plant diversity has on herd
productivity and production savings to farmers who practice grass-based
dairying, according to Kathy Soder, an animal scientist in the ARS
Pasture Systems and Watershed Management
Research Unit, University Park, Pa.
Since 2001, Soder and colleagues with ARS and PSU have monitored
crude protein content, dry forage yield and other features of eight pasture
plots at PSU's Dairy Research Center as indicators of productivity. In the
Northeast, pasture typically contains a grass species plus a legume, like
clover, according to ARS agronomist Matt Sanderson. But the dairy center's
plots contain various mixtures of orchard grass, white clover, red clover,
chicory, perennial ryegrass, Kentucky blue grass, birdsfoot trefoil and tall
fescue.
Sanderson leads pasture plot evaluation, while Soder oversees
the dairy cows' grazing behavior, physiology and milk production over four
21-day grazing periods. From 25 pounds of dry forage matter, plus a grain
supplement, the cows produce 10 to 12 gallons of milk per day. Interestingly,
their milk production on mixed pasture has differed little from control plots
having two forage species. But this isn't necessarily a disadvantage, according
to Soder. The main benefit expected from using mixed pasture is a greater, more
persistent yield of dry forage matter that can support more cows per area than
conventional pasture.
Read more
about the research in the March issue of Agricultural Research
magazine.
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency. |