Abstract

Whole-crop silages of oats, six-rowed barley and two-rowed barley, harvested at heading (H), early milk (EM) and early dough (ED) stages of maturity, were fed to thirty-two heifers of the Swedish Red breed in a change-over experiment. The animals were fed the silages ad libitum for seventeen days, of which intake was determined during the last ten days, and then 0.95 of ad libitum for eleven days of which in vivo digestibility was determined during the last five days. Differences were considered significant if PTukey's<0.05. Organic matter intake (OMI) in kg 100 kg-1 live weight was higher for ED oats than for H oats (1.73 vs. 1.37) but higher for six-rowed barley at the H than at the ED stage (1.80 vs. 1.46). Organic matter digestibility (OMD) in g kg-1 decreased from H to EM stage of oats (679 to 625) and six-rowed barley (713 to 667). Neutral detergent fibre digestibility (NDFD) decreased from H to ED stage of oats (691 to 511), from H to EM stage of six-rowed barley (758 to 603) and from EM to ED stage of two-rowed barley (681 to 574). The OMD and NDFD were higher for the barley varieties than for oats

Keywords

hordeum vulgare; avena sativa; silage intake; NDF; starch; forage

Published in

Grassland Science in Europe
2008, Volume: 13, pages: 867-869
Title: Biodiversity and animal feed - Future challanges for grassland production
ISBN: 978-91-85911-47-9
Publisher: Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet

Conference

22nd General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation

SLU Authors

• Wallsten, Johanna

  • Department of Agricultural Research for Northern Sweden, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Nadeau, Elisabet

  • Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Bertilsson, Jan

  • Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Martinsson, Kjell

  • Department of Agricultural Research for Northern Sweden, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Animal and Dairy Science
Agricultural Science
Veterinary Science


Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/19173