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The use of an impeller mowing conditioner during haymaking had no effects on feeding behavior, feed intake or performance of organic dairy cows

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2021

Andreas Haselmann Open the ORCID record for Andreas Haselmann [Opens in a new window] ,
Josef Kirchler ,
Birgit Fürst-Waltl Open the ORCID record for Birgit Fürst-Waltl [Opens in a new window] ,
Werner Zollitsch Open the ORCID record for Werner Zollitsch [Opens in a new window] ,
Qendrim Zebeli Open the ORCID record for Qendrim Zebeli [Opens in a new window]  and
Wilhelm Knaus Open the ORCID record for Wilhelm Knaus [Opens in a new window]
Andreas Haselmann
Affiliation:
Division of Livestock Sciences, Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, BOKU—University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, 1180Vienna, Austria
Josef Kirchler
Affiliation:
Division of Livestock Sciences, Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, BOKU—University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, 1180Vienna, Austria
Birgit Fürst-Waltl
Affiliation:
Division of Livestock Sciences, Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, BOKU—University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, 1180Vienna, Austria
Werner Zollitsch
Affiliation:
Division of Livestock Sciences, Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, BOKU—University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, 1180Vienna, Austria
Qendrim Zebeli
Affiliation:
Department for Farm Animals and Veterinary Public Health, Institute of Animal Nutrition and Functional Plant Compounds, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, 1210Vienna, Austria
Wilhelm Knaus*
Affiliation:
Division of Livestock Sciences, Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, BOKU—University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, 1180Vienna, Austria
*
Author for correspondence: Wilhelm Knaus, E-mail: wilhelm.knaus@boku.ac.at
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Abstract

Impeller mowing conditioners are commonly used to speed up the drying process on the field, making forage preservation (haying, ensiling) less dependent on weather conditions. However, the effects of this technique on the nutritive value of the forage and dairy cows' responses have not been investigated yet. Each half of two fields of grass-dominated swards, first regrowth, was cut either with or without the use of an impeller mowing conditioner (experimental hay and control hay, respectively). Ceteris paribus conditions were guaranteed by the same cutting and wilting times (roughly 48 h), number of teddings, field pickup technique and barn-drying method. At the beginning of the feeding trial, 19 lactating Holstein cows were allocated to one of two groups, one control (nine cows) and one experimental group (10 cows) and were fed the respective forage plus a fixed amount of concentrate [3.6 kg d−1; dry matter (DM) basis]. After a 14-d adaptation period, data were collected over 21 consecutive days. Covariate data of cows were collected prior to the experimental feeding period, over a time span of 9 d, and included in the statistical model. Results revealed that control and experimental hay showed significant (P < 0.05) differences in the nutrient profile. However, the magnitude of these differences was not enough to affect intakes of hay (18.4 ± 0.29 kg DM d−1), total dietary energy or chewing activity, but did lead to a decreased intake of water-soluble carbohydrates and an increased crude protein intake, thus affecting ruminal nitrogen balance (P < 0.01). This resulted in a higher milk urea content [23.3 vs 17.9 mg (100 mL)−1; P < 0.01] in cows fed the experimental hay, whereas other milk performance parameters remained unaffected. In conclusion, the use of the impeller mowing conditioner did not affect the overall forage utilization by cows when the diet contained about 16% concentrate (DM basis). As this is the first study dealing with the effects of an impeller mowing conditioner on cows' responses, future research should consider investigating the effects of mowing conditioners when cows are fed only forage or diets with lower concentrate amounts.

Keywords

Apparent total tract digestibilitychewing behaviorfeed sortinghay-based feeding
Type
Research Paper
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 36 , Issue 6 , December 2021 , pp. 549 - 556
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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