DO NOT DISMISS LOOSE COWS AT GRASS AS BEING INEVITABLE By Mark McFarland, Lallemand Animal Nutrition
We all know that when cows are grazing lush pasture they go ‘a bit loose’ which is a real inconvenience at milking time, but this loose manure can also suggest poor rumen function particularly if gas bubbles and undigested fibre are visible. The financial implications of compromised rumen digestion like this can be significant as not only can we see lower milk quality, cows will not achieve their milk production potential from grazing.
One farming couple who know all about the challenges of managing cows at grass are Kevin Gleeson & Anne Sugrue who lease 65ha in Borrisoleigh, Co. Tipperary. The couple run 147 mainly spring calving Holstein cows on a 55ha grazing platform. Cows are achieving 7,500L/year on 1.3Tn of concentrate with 570kg milk solids per cow sold to Tipperary Co-op. Cows are split across two herds, one milked through a Lely A4 Robot and the other through a DeLaval herringbone parlour.
“We were approached by Lallemand at the end of 2018 to see if we would be interested in taking part in a live yeast trial with our Lely robot herd for the 2019 grazing season,” explains Kevin. “We’ve had good results with Lallemand silage inoculant so we agreed to the yeast trial but after having difficulty sorting the dispenser for the robot we didn’t get things started until May. This made me a bit skeptical of seeing a benefit since we’d missed the early lush spring grass.”
Of the 55 cows going through the robot, 27 we’re allocated to receive Levucell SC (1X1010
cfu/head/
day) via the dispenser based on days in milk and yield. The remaining 28 received no additional supplementation to their 5kgs of 14% protein dairy pellet. In addition to the robot’s recorded performance data, key visual indicators of rumen efficiency were also investigated on three occasions during the four month trial with notable differences detected in manure consistency and cow cleanliness.
CONTROL
37 35 33 31 29 27 25 23 21
Grass silage LEVUCELL SC +2.3 kg 0 10x109 CFU/head/day
Maize silage Concentrates
Selected by Lallemand Animal Nutrition with INRA, rumen specific live yeast Levucell SC (Saccharomyces cerevisiae CNCM I-1077) helps increase fibre digestion and stabilise rumen pH – reducing the risk of Sub Acute Ruminal Acidosis (SARA). Through improved rumen function and feed efficiency cows can digest and utilise grass better and, as a result, Levucell SC has been proven to increase milk yield and quality. An early study with Levucell SC in Northern Ireland (Donaldson et al., 2000) showed significant improvements in milk performance of supplemented cows (+2.3kg) during the transition from a winter diet to grazing.
Table 1. Average milk performance Control
Milk yield (kg/d)
Milk protein (%) Milk fat (%)
28.70
3.39 3.97
Levucell SC 29.22 (+0.52)*
3.43* 4.14*
Grazing
PAGE 32 MARCH/APRIL 2020 FEED COMPOUNDER
Average milk production (kg/head)
24/12/99 07/01/00 21/01/00 04/02/00 18/02/00 03/03/00 17/03/00 31/03/00 14/04/00 28/04/00 12/05/00 26/05/00
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