Lactational Performance of Early-Lactation Dairy Cows Fed Forages Produced by Two Different Crop Production Programs

Early-lactation high-producing dairy cows require highly digestible forages. Thirty early-lactation (58 days in milk; 38.9 kg/d milk) cows were blocked and randomly assigned to one of two treatments. The treatments were the control (<b>CON</b>), consisting of corn silage and alfalfa haylage produced via university crop production practices, versus supplementing soil and crop additives (<b>SCA</b>) during crop production. Milk production (32.6 and 36.9 kg/d for CON and SCA, respectively) increased (<i>p</i> < 0.04) when cows were fed SCA forages compared with cows fed CON forages, while the dry matter intakes were similar (<i>p</i> < 0.46). The yields of milk fat were similar (<i>p</i> > 0.26), but the milk protein (0.98 and 1.09 kg/d), lactose (1.62 and 1.88 kg/d), and total solids (3.77 and 4.25 kg/d) contents were greater (<i>p</i> < 0.05) for cows fed SCA compared with cows fed CON. The total-tract apparent neutral detergent fiber (48.5 and 54.7%) and acid detergent fiber (48.3 and 54.4%) digestibility increased (<i>p</i> < 0.03), while the starch digestibility (97.9 and 98.4%) tended (<i>p</i> < 0.06) to increase for cows fed SCA compared with cows fed CON. Feeding highly digestible forages during early lactation improved milk production, milk composition, and fiber digestibility in a high-forage ration.