Factors Influencing Consumption Speed of Forages Given in Two Portions in Primiparous Dairy Cows

Abstract

The study was carried out on 6 Romanian Black and White cows in their first one hundred days of lactation. The aim was to assess the consumption speed (g/min), as well as the required time for consumption of 1 kg of raw forage for alfalfa-hay, herbs silage, beet and concentrates), administered in two portions (P1, P2,) per day, in 2 equal feedings (F1, F2) per portion. The administration order of forages (fibrous-succulents and succulents-fibrous), the number of feedings and the average consumption speed among the two portions were the experimental variants. Data was computed by ANOVA/MANOVA. The average consumption speed determined was 198.5 g/min for concentrates, 48.28 g/min for alfalfa hay, 203.19 g/min for silage and 235.32 g/min for beets. The required time for 1 kg of raw forage consumption (minutes and seconds) was 5.02 for concentrates, 20.43 for alfalfa hay, 4.35 for herbs silage and 4.15 for beets.

Keywords

• consumption speed
• nutritional behavior
• primiparous cows
• romanian black and white cows