By-products replacing ground corn for dairy cows rotationally grazing elephant grass: milk yield and composition

Junio Martinez; Guilhermo Congio; Diogo Costa; Pedro Guerreiro; Tadeu Voltolini; Carla Bittar; Flávio Santos

doi:10.53588/alpa.330401

Junio Cesar Martinez Department of Animal Science, Mato Grosso State University, Pontes e Lacerda 78250-000, MT
Guilhermo Francklin de Souza Congio Department of Animal Science, Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture, University of Sao Paulo, Piracicaba 13418-900, SP, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7659-594X
Diogo Fleury Azevedo Costa Department of Animal Science, Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture, University of Sao Paulo, Piracicaba 13418-900, SP, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8118-8380
Pedro Guerreiro Institute for Future Farming Systems, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, QLD 4701, Australia https://orcid.org/
Tadeu Vinhas Voltolini Embrapa Semi-Arid Region, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, Petrolina 56302-970, PE, Brazil
Carla Maris Machado Bittar Department of Animal Science, Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture, University of Sao Paulo, Piracicaba 13418-900, SP, Brazil
Flávio Augusto Portela Santos Department of Animal Science, Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture, University of Sao Paulo, Piracicaba 13418-900, SP, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5583-3286

DOI: https://doi.org/10.53588/alpa.330401

Keywords: blood parameters, coproducts, forage quality, Holstein, Pennisetum purpureum, tropical pastures

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of different by-products used as feedstuffs to replace ground corn in the supplement of Holstein dairy cows rotationally grazing intensively managed elephant grass. Five experiments were conducted to evaluate pelleted citrus pulp (PCP), corn gluten feed (CGF), whole cottonseed (WCS), wheat middlings (WHM), and soybean hulls (SBH) as alternatives to ground corn. The experiments followed a Latin square design and assessed blood and performance parameters such as milk yield (MY) and milk composition. Blood parameters were not affected (p > 0.05) by any by-products. The inclusion of PCP, CGF, and SBH up to 75%, and WHM up to 50% in place of corn did not affect (p > 0.05) either MY or milk composition. However, increasing the level of WCS up to 21% resulted in a significant reduction (p < 0.05) in yields of milk, 3.5% fat-corrected milk, protein, and milk solids, along with an increase (p < 0.05) in milk urea nitrogen. Our results suggest the use of PCP, CGF, WCS, WHM, and SBH replacing corn in the supplement up to 75, 75, 14, 50, and 75%, respectively, has no adverse short-term effects on MY and composition of Holstein cows grazing intensively managed elephant grass.

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