@conference {40825,
	title = {Effects of feeding silage and extending lactation on the pastoral dairy system},
	booktitle = {Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	volume = {56},
	year = {1996},
	month = {Jan},
	pages = {239-241},
	publisher = {New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	organization = {New Zealand Society of Animal Production},
	abstract = {Short lactation length is one of the main reasons for the low milk yield  per cow in New Zealand. This experiment used replicated farmlets to  measure the effects of extending the lactation, and feeding extra silage on  the dairy farm system. On the 4th April 54 lower yielding cows were dried- off and divided into two equal herds (D). The remaining 64 cows were also  divided into two equal herds, and milked for another 54 days (M). Each of  the four herds was grazed on a self- contained farmlet, at 2.9 cows/ha. D  herds received only grazed pasture (16 kg dry matter (DM)/cow/day  allowance), while M herds received pasture (30 kg DM/cow/day allowance)  plus silage (5.5 kg DM/cow/day). At the end of the experiment the M system  produced 57.7 kg milksolids (fat+protein) per cow, but had lower (P<0.05)  average pasture cover (by 584 kg DM/ha) and lower (P<0.001) body  condition scores (by 0.33/cow) than the D system. Extra milk can be  produced from extra days in milk, but the extra feed required must be  planned and monitored very carefully, to prevent losses in body condition  and pasture cover. },
	issn = {1176-5283},
	author = {Pinares C and Holmes CW}
}
