The relation between the crude fibre content of food and the milk production.

Abstract

The Friesian cow in Indonesia gives about 1, 500 1. milk in about 240 days compared with 3, 800 1. in 300 days in the Netherlands. The author believes that the main reason for the low production in the tropics is not climate, but faulty feeding practices. A cow fed a typical Indonesian ration of reedy grass and fibrous concentrates gave 1, 003 1. milk in the first no days of her first lactation, but increased to 1, 870 1. in the first 102 days of her second lactation when given a diet containing much less crude fibre, in spite of the fact that the former lactation was in the wet and the latter in the dry season. G.F.S. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)