PLANTAIN CAN SAVE CONCENTRATE SUPPLEMENT COSTS FOR GRAZING DAIRY COWS.

Concentrate feeding on pasture- based systems has increased lately, often at a cost as intake of pasture may be partially replaced and therefore the increased milk yield with concentrate supplementation may not attain the intended level. Therefore, the approach should rather be maximizing intake from pasture with concentrate supplementation at a level which does not substitute pasture intake. This may be possible if concentrate supplementation can be partially replaced with a high-quality, fast-degradable pasture such as the forage herb plantain. Presumably the lower fibre content of plantain and higher digestibility thereof will allow higher DM intake. Thus, the aim of the study by the authors cited was to determine if allocating plantain pasture additional to the normal ryegrass pasture will increase forage intake, increase milk production and allow feeding of concentrate at a lower level.

Sixty lactating Jersey cows were blocked according to 4% fat-corrected milk, days in milk, lactation number and live weight. They were then randomly allocated to one of four treatments: ryegrass only and ryegrass with plantain and either 4 kg/day concentrate or 6 kg/day. The cows grazed ryegrass day and night whereas those receiving plantain were moved to the plantain pasture before morning milking. Concentrates were fed in the milking parlour.

Milk production did not differ significantly between treatments receiving 6 kg/day concentrate and the 4 kg/ day plus plantain, but the 4 kg/day with ryegrass only treatment was lower. Milk fat and protein did not differ significantly between treatments. Factorial analysis showed that the addition of plantain pasture was more impactful to cows receiving 4 kg/day concentrates than cows receiving 6 kg/day and because milk production was similar, it was clear that the partial substitution of concentrate with plantain pasture was feasible. This was corroborated by similar increases in live weight. The economic evaluation showed that profit per cow per day was increased by respectively R10.64 and R4.37 for cows grazing plantain pasture and fed 4 kg/day or 6 kg/day concentrates.

Conclusion: Irrespective of plantain, the results suggest that it could be plausible to partly substitute concentrate with a high-quality pasture without causing a reduction in milk production. This should result in a substantial increase in profit.