Effect on Milk Production in Thailand of Silage from Forage Sorghum and Forage Sorghum with Lablab purpureus

Abstract

The experiment was designed to determine the quality of silage from forage sorghum and from forage sorghum mixed with lablab legume on dairy production, using eight multi-parous mid-lactating Holstein-Friesian crossbred cows, based on days in milk, lactation number and previous milk yield. The cows were divided into two treatments using a pair comparison, with four animals in each group. Animals in group 1 were provided with forage sorghum silage while those in group 2 were fed silage from forage sorghum mixed with lablab legume. All cows were also individually fed a commercial meal concentrate of 89.01% dry matter and 19.46% CP, twice daily at milking times of 0500 and 1500 hours. The results revealed that fresh yields of forage sorghum and forage sorghum intercropped with lablab legume were 1,319 and 1,374 kg.ha-1, respectively. However, the better nutritive values of forage sorghum with lablab legumes were found to produce higher values of % body weight change, total daily dry matter intake, actual milk yield, 4% fat corrected milk, blood glucose and blood urea nitrogen but they were not signifi cantly different. However, the higher nutritive values of forage sorghum mixed with forage legume can possibly increase dairy production.