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Live weight gain, urinary nitrogen excretion and urination behaviour of dairy heifers grazing pasture, chicory and plantain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2017

L. CHENG ,
J. MCCORMICK ,
A. N. HUSSEIN ,
C. LOGAN ,
D. PACHECO ,
M. C. HODGE  and
G. R. EDWARDS
L. CHENG*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, PO Box 85084, New Zealand
J. MCCORMICK
Affiliation:
Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, PO Box 85084, New Zealand
A. N. HUSSEIN
Affiliation:
Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, PO Box 85084, New Zealand
C. LOGAN
Affiliation:
Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, PO Box 85084, New Zealand
D. PACHECO
Affiliation:
AgResearch, Grasslands Research Centre, Palmerston North, New Zealand
M. C. HODGE
Affiliation:
Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, PO Box 85084, New Zealand
G. R. EDWARDS*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, PO Box 85084, New Zealand
*
*To whom all correspondence should be addressed. Emails: paulchengnz@yahoo.com.au and grant.edwards@lincoln.ac.nz
*To whom all correspondence should be addressed. Emails: paulchengnz@yahoo.com.au and grant.edwards@lincoln.ac.nz
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Summary

The objective of the present study was to investigate live weight (LW) gain, urinary nitrogen (UN) excretion and urination behaviour of dairy heifers grazing pasture, chicory and plantain in autumn and spring. The study comprised a 35-day autumn trial (with a 7-day acclimation period) and a 28-days spring trial (with a 7-day acclimation period). For each trial, 56 Friesian × Jersey heifers were blocked into five dietary treatments balanced for their LW and breeding worth (i.e. genetic merit of a cow for production and reproduction): 1·00 perennial ryegrass–white clover pasture (PA); 1·00 chicory (CH); 1·00 plantain (PL); 0·50 pasture + 0·50 chicory (PA + CH); and 0·50 pasture + 0·50 plantain (PA + PL). A fresh allocation of the herbage was offered every 3 days with allowance calculated according to feed requirement for maintenance plus gain of 1·0 kg LW/day. In both trials, LW gain was lower on CH than other treatments. In the spring trial, UN concentration and UN excretion were lower in CH and PL than other treatments. In autumn, a higher urination frequency was observed over the first 6 h after forage allocation in CH and PA + CH than other treatments. Data from the present study indicate that feeding CH alone limited heifer LW gain. However, heifers grazing swards containing chicory (CH and PA + CH) and plantain (PL and PA + PL) had the potential to lower nitrous oxide emissions and nitrate leaching from soil compared with heifers grazing PA, by reducing N loading in urine patches.

Type
Animal Research Papers
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 155 , Issue 4 , May 2017 , pp. 669 - 678
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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