The effect of herbage allowance on the performance of lactating dairy cows : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Agricultural Science in Animal Science at Massey University

Three groups of six cows were offered daily herbage allowances of 53, 33, and 13.5 kg DM cow-1 for a 5 week period in early lactation. These allowances resulted in apparent dry matter intakes of 15.8, 14.3 and 9.6 kg DM cow-1 and residual dry matter yields after grazing of 1850, 1550 and 750 kg DM ha.-1. There were no significant differences in milk, milkfat or protein yield between the cows offered 53 kg DM cow-1 and 33 kg DM cow-1 , but the cows offered the higher allowance had greater live-weight gains, (P