Table 2.
Effect of cow feeding system (S: TMR vs. pTMR) and grazing period (P) on body weight (BW) and feed intake.
| Item | TMR | pTMR | Grazing Period # | SEM | p-Values | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | P2 | P3 | S | P | |||||
| Body weight (kg): | |||||||||
| - initial | 526 | 520 | 520 | 516 | 514 | 24.3 | n.s. | n.s. | |
| - final | 535 | 514 | 516 | 514 | 514 | 27.1 | ** | n.s. | |
| - change | +9 | −7 | −4 a | −2 ab | −1 b | 0.56 | *** | * | |
| Energy requirements—NEL (Mcal/day) 1: | |||||||||
| - maintenance | 8.60 | 8.60 | 8.60 | 8.60 | 8.60 | - | - | - | |
| - milk production | 20.63 | 19.79 | 20.64 | 19.70 | 18.72 | - | - | - | |
| - movement | - | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | - | - | - | |
| - change of BW | +0.83 | −0.46 | −0.97 | −0.49 | −0.25 | - | - | - | |
| Dry Matter Intake (kg/day) | |||||||||
| - TMR, from which: | 18.11 | 13.80 | 13.05 b | 13.50 a | 13.74 a | 0.418 | *** | * | |
| - forage | 10.73 | 8.18 | 7.74 | 8.00 | 8.15 | 0.283 | ** | n.s. | |
| - concentrate | 7.38 | 5.62 | 5.31 | 5.50 | 5.59 | 0.382 | ** | n.s. | |
| - pasture | - | 4.82 | 5.85 a | 5.07 b | 4.46 c | 0.291 | - | ** | |
| Total: —kg DM/day | 18.11 | 18.62 | 18.90 | 18.57 | 18.20 | 0.415 | n.s. | n.s. | |
| —kg DM/100 kg BW | 3.42 | 3.60 | 3.65 | 3.60 | 3.54 | 0.132 | n.s. | n.s. | |
| NEL (Mcal/day) | |||||||||
| - Total, from which: | 30.06 | 29.93 | 30.27 | 29.81 | 29.32 | 1.072 | n.s. | n.s. | |
| - TMR | 30.06 | 22.90 | 21.67 | 22.41 | 22.81 | 0.985 | *** | n.s. | |
| - pasture | - | 7.03 | 8.60 a | 7.40 b | 6.51 c | 0.268 | - | ** | |
| Differences from the requirements | +0.83 | −0.46 | −0.97 | −0.49 | −0.25 | - | - | - | |
| Feed conversion ratios (FCR) | |||||||||
| NEL (Mcal/kg milk), from which: | 1.21 | 1.32 | 1.28 | 1.32 | 1.36 | 0.059 | * | n.s. | |
| - TMR | 1.21 | 1.01 | 0.92 | 0.99 | 1.06 | 0.055 | * | n.s. | |
| - pasture | - | 0.31 | 0.36 | 0.33 | 0.30 | 0.006 | - | * | |
| Concentrate (g/kg milk) | 296.8 | 247.0 | 223.8 | 242.9 | 259.7 | 8.421 | ** | * | |
TMR: total mixed ration; pTMR: partial mixed ration; SEM: standard error of the mean; 1 Estimated according to NRC values [17]. # Grazing period (3 weeks): P1—May, P2—June, P3—June/July. a–c Mean values within a row without a common superscript differ significantly (p < 0.05). Statistically significant difference: * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001; n.s.—not significant.