Urea treated maize straw for small-scale dairy systems in the highlands of Central Mexico

• Published in: Tropical animal health and production Vol. 41; no. 7; pp. 1487 - 1494
• Main Authors: García-Martínez, Anastacio, Albarrán-Portillo, Benito, Castelán-Ortega, Octavio Alonso, Espinoza-Ortega, Angélica, Arriaga-Jordán, Carlos Manuel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-10-2009; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animals; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Body Constitution; Cattle; Cattle - physiology; Chemical analysis; Corn straw; Dairying - methods; Diet - veterinary; Female; Life Sciences; Mexico; Milk - statistics & numerical data; Original Paper; Silage - analysis; Urea; Urea - chemistry; Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science; Zea mays; Zoology; Mexico; Mexico; Highlands; Urea treatment; Maize straw; Small-scale dairying
• ISSN: 0049-4747; 1573-7438
• DOI: 10.1007/s11250-009-9337-4

Maize straw is the main roughage for dairy herds in
campesino
farms in central Mexico. The objective was to evaluate feeding milking cows on maize straw treated with 40 g/kg DM of urea (A) or untreated straw (B), and 3.0 kg/d of 18% CP concentrate. Twenty-four Holsteins in late lactation from 8 farmers were sorted in two groups: sequence A-B-A or B-A-B; periods were 28 days. Mean daily milk yield for the last two weeks per period, and live-weight and body-condition score every 14 days were used for analysis. Maize straw was
ad libitum
. Chemical analysis and
in vitro
digestibility were analysed by Student’s
t
test, animal variables by a switch-back design. ‘A’ had 44.3 g/kg DM more CP and 106.5 g/kg DM higher
in vitro
digestibility than ‘B’ (710 g/kg DM ± 0.75 ‘A’ vs. 603.5 g/kg DM ± 1.44 ‘B’). Despite higher digestibility and intake, there were no differences (P > 0.05) for milk yield, live-weight or body-condition score, although there were in straw intake (P < 0.05). Cows on ‘A’ ate 1.7 kg/cow/day more straw DM than on ‘B’. Lack of response did not offset higher feeding costs although margins were high. Lack of response is attributed to short length of periods and late lactation of cows.