Table 1.
Average diet1 and nutrient composition of pasture and TMR, across the 4-yr study for the organic dairy herd and low-input conventional dairy herd
| Organic herd | Conventional herd | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Item | May to October | November to April | May to October | November to April |
| Ingredient, % of DM | ||||
| Corn silage | 38.8 | 38.8 | 35.2 | |
| Alfalfa haylage | 39.4 | 31.3 | 17.6 | |
| Ground corn | 2.7 | 9.4 | 12.8 | 12.2 |
| Dry grass hay | 9.8 | 9.1 | 9.0 | |
| Vitamin and Mineral mix2 | 0.5 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.4 |
| Soybean meal | 1.2 | 3.9 | 3.8 | |
| Wet beet pulp | 18.3 | |||
| Distillers grains | 2.9 | 2.7 | ||
| Nutrient composition | ||||
| Dry matter, % | 23.3 | 48.8 | 51.6 | 49.6 |
| Crude protein, % of DM | 23.0 | 14.6 | 15.0 | 15.0 |
| Acid detergent fiber, % of DM | 32.2 | 29.2 | 22.9 | 22.4 |
| Neutral detergent fiber, % of DM | 49.6 | 39.0 | 34.9 | 31.8 |
| Non-fiber carbohydrates (%) | 17.3 | 31.1 | 42.1 | 46.1 |
1Feed sample components were collected by a nutrition consultant on a monthly basis and pasture samples were collected on a weekly basis.
2Vitamin and mineral mix included calcium (13.0%), phosphorus (5.0%), salt (26.0%), magnesium (4.7%), potassium (0.6%), sulfur (1.2%), selenium (16 ppm), vitamin A (94,347 IU/kg), vitamin D3 (23,587 IU/kg), vitamin E (376 IU/kg; Vita Plus Corporation, Madison, WI).