Saccharina in feeds for grazing cows. Milk production

Eighty grazing Holstein cows with a liveweight of 501 +/- 12 kg, 12.5 kg of milk/cow/day and an average of more than 3 lactations were randomly distri buted according to their previous lactation to evaluate the inclusion of 50 , 70 and 90% of Saccharina in the feed against a commercial concentrate (co ntrol). The stocking sate was 3.5 cows/day in a bermuda grass 67 award fert ilized with 275 kg of N/ha and irrigation in the dry season. Milk yield and liveweight were statistically analysed according to a multiplicative model which controlled the effect of the lactation curve, the treatment, parity and the bimester of calving and production, as well as the bimester of prod uction and calving interactions with the treatment. Daily milk production d iffered between treatments P < 0.05 (11.2, 10.4 and 9.9 kg/cow) and it was higher in the control (11.8 kg/cow) while liveweight did not differ (497, 5 09, 511 and 509) for the inclusion of 50, 70 and 90% of Saccharina and the control, respectively. Feeds that included 50 and 70% of Saccharina guarant eed 10 kg of milk/cow/day, without affecting milk components under experime ntal conditions.