Nutritive value of high moisture corn grain silage on dairy cows diets

• Grant number: 09/51735-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: September 01, 2009
• End date: August 31, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Nutrition and Feeding
• Principal Investigator: Ciniro Costa
• Grantee: Ciniro Costa
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Five primiparous Black and White Holstein cows with 84 postpartum days will be replicated in a 5x5 Latin square design. The objective of this study will be the evaluation of substitution levels (0; 25; 50; 75 and 100) of Ground Corn (GC) for High Moisture Corn Grain Silage (HMCGS) on nutrients digestibility and plasma glucose concentration. The diets will be formulated with Sugarcane silage and grass hay as forage and the concentrate will contain soybean meal as protein source and ground corn and/or high moisture corn grain silage as energetic source. The five diets will contain 100; 75; 50; 25 or 0% GC and 0; 25; 50; 75 or 100 HMCGS respectively. The animals will be kept in Tie Stall with sand floor and free access to individual watering place and feedbox. The experimental period will last 70 days with five phases of 14 days each. The first ten days of each phase will be the adaptation period and the data and samples will be collected at four last days. The animals will be milked twice a day and,, the cows will be-fed ad libitum three times a day. Feces samples will be collected twice a day after milking during the last four days of each period of each phase and blood samples will be collected just on the last day (14° day) before the first meal (0h) and 2; 4; 6 and 12h after the meal. (AU)