Item

Urine volume of non-lactating dairy cows in late gestation fed forage based diets in winter

Farrell, Lydia Jane
Bryant, Racheal H.
Hague, Helen
Edwards, Grant
Date
2016
Type
Conference Contribution - published
Fields of Research
ANZSRC::070204 Animal Nutrition , ANZSRC::0702 Animal Production , ANZSRC::0701 Agriculture, Land and Farm Management , ANZSRC::0703 Crop and Pasture Production
Abstract
Quantitative information on urine volume of dairy cows fed winter forages is required to accurately evaluate nitrate leaching risks on these diets. Thirty-two Friesian x Jersey non-lactating, pregnant dairy cows were fed either 10 kg DM of fodder beet with 5.6 kg DM of ryegrass baleage or 16.4 kg DM of kale with 6.4 kg of oat silage. Cows were fitted with a urine meter for 24 to 72 hours to record the frequency and volume of urine events. Daily urine volume (28 ± 3 L/cow/day), frequency (9 ± 0.89 events/cow/day), and event volume (3.2 ± 0.3 L/event) were not significantly different between fodder beet and kale treatments. This was despite respective differences in total apparent water (51 vs. 70 L/cow/day, ± 2, P<0.001) and nitrogen (N) intake (231 vs. 488 g N/cow/ day, ± 9.4, P<0.001). In this study, water consumption and N intake did not appear to be linked with urine volume of dairy cows when two different forage diets were compared.
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Rights
© The authors
Creative Commons Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
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