School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences - Theses
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ItemEffect of body condition at calving on milk yield of the dairy cow( 1978)The experiments reported in this thesis were done at the Dairy Research Institute (Ellinbank), Department of Agriculture, Victoria. This Institute is situated 100 kilometres east of Melbourne in the West Gippsland Region. The information currently available on the effect of precalving feeding on subsequent milk yield of grazing dairy cows is limited and largely of a qualitative nature. This thesis attempts to provide quantitative information on which feed management decisions can be made in the precalving period with some degree of confidence. The design, analysis and interpretation of the two experiments reported in this thesis were done primarily by myself. I was also actively involved in development of the condition scoring system reported in this thesis and in collecting, analyzing and interpreting data in order to provide an objective description of the condition scoring system. Chapter 1 reviews the literature on precalving feeding of the dairy cow indicating the apparent conflict in the results of different experiments which cannot be explained because of the confounded design and inadequate reporting of the results of experiments. Gaps in our current knowledge of precalvins feeding are also highlighted. Chapter 2 reports on an experiment which was done as part of a series of three experiments at Ellinbank to determine the relative importance of precalving liveweight change and body condition at calving on milk yield of dairy cows. These three experiments have been written up and accepted for publication in the Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture and Animal Husbandry. Chapter 3 describes a system for scoring the body condition of dairy cows which was developed at Ellinhank with the assistance of the author. Chapter 4 reports on an experiment which quantifies the effect of body condition score at calving on milk yield under two levels of feeding after calving. This experiment and a more recently completed experiment with stall- fed cattle in different condition scores are to be combined and submitted shortly to the Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture and Animal Husbandry. In Chapter 5 the experimental results are discussed in the light of continuing work and the industry significance of the work is emphasized.