Seasonal variation in milk production and cheese yield from commercial dairy farms located in northern Victoria is associated with pasture and grazing management and supplementary feeding practices
G. P. Walker A D , R. Williams B , P. T. Doyle A and F. R. Dunshea CA Department of Primary Industries, 120 Cooma Road, Kyabram, Vic. 3620, Australia.
B Food Science Australia, 671 Sneydes Road, Werribee, Vic. 3030, Australia.
C Department of Primary Industries, 600 Sneydes Road, Werribee, Vic. 3030, Australia.
D Corresponding author. Email: glen.walker@dpi.vic.gov.au
Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 47(5) 509-524 https://doi.org/10.1071/EA04168
Submitted: 9 August 2004 Accepted: 15 September 2006 Published: 13 April 2007
Abstract
A study of irrigated pasture-based commercial dairy farms that made use of split calving (two distinct periods of calving; autumn and spring) was undertaken between April 2001 and March 2002 in northern Victoria, to examine associations between herd nutrition, time of year and season of calving and the production and composition of milk. On average, herds that had access to higher digestibility pasture or were fed more cereal grain-based concentrates produced more milk. However, the average marginal yield of 4% fat corrected milk/kg cereal grain-based concentrates was less than responses achieved under experimental conditions in northern Victoria. Herds that calved in autumn had different production characteristics to those that calved in spring, in that they did not show an early lactation peak in milk yield and produced milk with lower average concentrations of crude protein, casein and fat. Despite this, herds that calved in autumn had greater persistency of milk yield in mid to late lactation, when they tended to be better fed on pasture, so that yields of milk solids over a notional 310-day lactation were similar for both calving groups (523 v. 529 kg fat + protein; autumn v. spring, respectively), but herds that calved in autumn produced milk with a lower potential to yield cheddar cheese (10.2 v. 10.6 kg cheese/100 kg milk; P < 0.01). Farms that produced milk in the lowest quartile for potential to yield cheddar cheese differed from the top quartile in that they: (i) milked fewer cows (175 v. 250); (ii) fed less supplements (5.6 v. 9.4 kg DM/cow.day); (iii) walked their herds shorter distances between pasture and the dairy (2.2 v. 3.2 km/day); (iv) allocated lower herbage allowances (33 v. 43 kg DM/cow.day); and (v) grazed pastures at a mass low enough to have restricted pasture intake (< 3 t DM/ha), about twice the frequency of farms (0.40 v. 0.17) in the top quartile. Greater productivity of the dairy industry in northern Victoria could be achieved through better grazing and pasture management and supplementary feeding practices on farms.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the capable technical support provided by Daryl Wilson, Pam Guerra (Department of Primary Industries, Kyabram, Vic.), Maike van der Maat and Irene Van Dorp (Wageningen University, The Netherlands). We are also grateful to Robin Green for statistical advice and Richard Maxwell for the production of the farm locality map (both of Department of Primary Industries, Tatura, Vic.). The Department of Primary Industries, Victoria (formerly Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Victoria) and Dairy Australia (formerly Dairy Research and Development Corporation) funded this work.
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