Lactating cows require a lot of energy. At the heart of this conversation on energy is a discussion on what crop is the most economic and bet fits within the producer’s resources to purchase or grow.
One option offered for consideration by Virginia Tech’s Gonzalo Ferreira is barley or hulless barley. Hulless barley features a loose husk covering that is removed during combine threshing and cleaning of the grain. It can be harvested two to three weeks earlier than traditional barley.
The question Ferreira answered in a recent study was how high-producing cows will respond to this high-energy cereal grain. In an on-farm trial, Ferreira and his team compared hulless barley to diets containing corn, measuring production performance and nutrient utilization.
“Overall, cows consuming diets with hulless barley grain performed as well as cows consuming diets with corn grain,” he said. “In addition, and contrary to our expectations, we observed that feeding hulless barley did not decrease milkfat concentration.”
The researchers compared hulless barley to hulled barley, finding that pelleted barley in either form led to similar lactation performances, even with different forage-to-concentrate ratios. “Substantial or dramatic milkfat depression should not be expected when feeding diets containing 30 percent barley or less as the grain source,” Farreira concluded.
This article was reprinted from the Farm Flashes section of the April 10th, 2018 issue of Hoard’s Dairyman