Livestock Research for Rural Development 31 (12) 2019 LRRD Misssion Guide for preparation of papers LRRD Newsletter

Citation of this paper

Effect of the silvopastoral system on milk production and composition in Siboney-Cuba cows

Robier Hernández-Rodríguez

Laboratorio para el Control de la Calidad de los Alimentos, CENLAC, Centro Nacional de Sanidad Agropecuaria, CENSA, Apartado 10, San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque, Cuba
robier@unah.edu.cu
Departamento de Prevención, Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria, Universidad Agraria de la Habana, UNAH, Apartado 18-19, San José de las Lajas. Mayabeque, Cuba

Summary

This study had the objective of analyzing milk production and composition in Siboney de Cuba cows under two management/feeding systems (silvopastoral with Leucaena trees and Star grass and conventional grazing on Star grass) from eight dairy farms located in Mayabeque province, Cuba. Data were obtained in rainy and dry seasons during two years. Milk samples were analyzed for protein, fat, lactose, non-fat solids and total solids by Mid-infrared Method. The data were analysed by ANOVA (SAS Statistical program) adapted to an entirely randomized design with variable number of repetitions. Tukey’s test was used for mean comparisons. Pearson´s correlations were carried out among some of the variables.

Milk yield and composition (milk fat excepted) were higher in the silvopastoral system than in the conventional grazing in both wet and dry seasons. For both systems, performance was better in the wet than in the dry season but there was no interaction between season and management system.

Key words: correlation, dairy herd, grazing


Introduction

In the last decade, Cuba has shown a steady development towards more sustainable systems in agriculture. This type of production has been mainly directed at crop production. However, the livestock sector has shown discrete advances, predominantly in dairy production with Leucaena leucocephala trees planted in the whole grazing area and in hedges, in a system named silvopastoral. Reports of milk production of 6 L/cow/day have been obtained without chemical fertilizers and the stocking rates studied under these conditions are close to 2 SAU/ha (Sánchez-Santana et al 2018).

In milk production per cow, research has demonstrated certain differences between sustainable and conventional systems (Barragán-Hernández et al 2016, Bottini-Luzardo et al 2016, Rivera et al 2018, Hernández y Ponce 2004). In relation to milk composition, most research showed differences in major constituents of milk (López et al 2015, Hernández 2005, Hernández y Ponce 2005).

The genetic improvement program of the Cuban dairy herd has shown a steady development through crossbreed of Holstein and Zebu genotypes to develop a stabilized crossbred known as Siboney de Cuba (Uffo 2003).

However, until the present time, milk production and composition in this genotype have been evaluated, in great measure, under conventional pasture and there are few reports on the more sustainable silvopastoral system (Hernández 2005).

For this reason, the objective was to analyze and to compare the productive yield (milk production and milk components) of Siboney de Cuba genotype cows under two feeding systems in Cuba: silvopastoral and conventional system of gramineous monopasture.


Materials and methods

The comparative study was conducted in 8 dairy farms located in Mayabeque province, Cuba: four under the silvopastoral system and the rest under conventional system. The farms had similar characteristics; 30 ha of total area and average production between 1600 and 2000 kg/cow/lactation). The stocking rates were between 2.6 and 3 SAU/ha.

The herds were constituted by dairy cows of Siboney de Cuba breed, with an average of 90 animals in the silvopastoral system and 80 animals in the conventional one. The investigation was carried out during 2 years, considering the existence of two seasons (rainy and dry season), with annual temperature average of 27 °C (22º C for dry season and 31 ºC for rainy season), a relative humidity of 85% and a precipitation of 800 mm and 450 mm for rainy and dry season respectively). All the herds grazed Star grass (Cynodon nlemfluensis) not fertilized and without irrigation. In the silvopastoral system Leucaena leucocephala had been planted with a distance among trees of 8 meters and a height average of 3.27 m. In all cases the farms were established on compacted red ferralitic soil (Photos 1 and 2).

Photo 1. Grazing without Leucaena trees Photo 2. The silvopastoral system

In all farms, electric fences were used to define the grazing areas. The grazing methodology was rotational, with 3 days of occupation and a period of rest of 33 days. All herds received as supplement 4 kg/head of concentrate and mineral suplement “ad libitum”. Additional supplementation was given in the dry season with molasses and chopped sugarcane for both silvopastoral and conventional farms. The milking process was by mechanical means (De-laval milking machine of 8 places). Individual milk production was recorded twice per month.

A total of 192 milk samples per farm were collected from bulk tanks for two years to analyze milk yield and composition (eight samples per month each farm). Total protein, lactose, fat, total solids (TS) and non-fatty solids (NFS) from milk samples were analyzed by Infrared Method (FIL-IDF 2000).

Data were submitted to ANOVA, adapted to an entirely randomized design with variable number of repetitions using the SAS program (SAS 1998). The treatments were conventional and silvopastoral systems. A variable number of animals within farms were analyzed, and considered as sub-samples of the experimental unit. The mathematical model was:

Yijk = m + ai + ck + bj (ai) + (ai)ck + (bj(ai ))ck + eikj

where:

Yijk are estimated parameters;

m is a general mean;

ai is the effect of production system (silvopastoral/conventional);

bj is the farm effect;

ck is the period effect (rainy/dry season);

bj (ai) is the interaction between farm and production system;

(ai)ck is the interaction between the system of production and the period;

(bj(ai))ck is the interaction between farm, system and period

eikj is the experimental error.

Tukey’s test, with a significance level of 5%, was used for mean comparisons. Pearson´s correlations were made among some of the variables.


Results and discussion

The mathematical model showed that farm effect had no interaction with production system nor between production system and season.

Milk yields and composition were higher in the silvopastoral system than in the conventional one (Table 1; Figure 1).

Figure 1. Effect of the sivopastoral system on milk yields in ghe dry and rainy seasons

Milk fat content was the same, not evidencing differences between both systems. Farm effect was not significant on expression of milk yield and composition. The better productivity of the silvopastoral system is related to the combination of grass-leguminous trees compared to gramineous system. The silvopastoral system provides better animal wellbeing as the presence of the Leucaena trees results in lower environmental temperature leading to increases in feed intake and in milk yield (Hernández 2005). Studies carried out on small dairy farmers with similar genotypes show similar values of milk composition to those obtained in this study (Martínez-Vasallo et al 2017).

Table 1. Milk yield and composition in conventional and silvopastoral systems (Mean ± Standard error)

Conventional

Silvopastoral

p

TS, %

12.74 ± 0.12

12.95 ± 019

<0.05

NFS, %

8.46 ± 0.045

8.65 ± 0.056

<0.01

Milk fat, %

4.28 ± 0.22

4.30 ± 0.16

<0.05

Protein, %

3.05 ± 0.035

3.15 ± 0.043

<0.01

Lactose %

4.71 ± 0.012

4.80 ± 0.018

<0.01

Milk yield, kg/cow/day

8.7 ± 0.16

10.7 ± 0.11

<0.001

Better milk composition from silvopastoral systems has been achieved because of better nitrogen fixation, more efficient photosynthesis and higher quality feed according to Sánchez-Santana et al (2018).

A comparative study of production parameters for monopastures and silvopastoral systems (Leucaena) in Colombia showed better yield for the silvopastoral system (15,805 vs 9,000 kg/ha/year) (Rivera et al 2018). Sánchez-Santana et al (2018) achieved, under a silvopastoral system, increments of milk production from 1 to 3 kg /cow/day, as well as a decrease of supplementary feeds given to the cows. This result agrees with the recent short-term effects observed by Hernández (2005) who obtained differences between rainy and dry season when comparing production of different genotypes under silvopastoral conditions.

Table 2. Effect of season on milk yield and composition in the conventional and silvopastoral system. (Mean ± SE)

Dry season

p

Conventional System

Silvopastoral System

TS, %

12.43 ± 0.17

12.55 ± 020

<0.01

NFS, %

8.27 ± 0.040

8.36 ± 0.051

<0.01

Milk fat, %

4.16 ± 0.25

4.19 ± 0.26

<0.05

Protein, %

2.95 ± 0.034

3.05 ± 0.040

<0.01

Lactose, %

4.62 ± 0.013

4.61 ± 0.016

<0.01

Milk yield, kg/cow/day

7.5 ± 0.18

9.5 ± 0.15

<0.001

Rainy season

Conventional System

Silvopastoral System

TS, %

13.04 ± 0.11

13.35 ± 015

<0.01

NFS, %

8.65 ± 0.039

8.94 ± 0.046

<0.01

Milk fat, %

4.39 ± 0.22

4.41 ± 0.18

<0.05

Protein, %

3.15 ± 0.033

3.27 ± 0.033

<0.01

Lactose %

4.80 ± 0.012

4.97 ± 0.017

<0.01

Milk yield, kg/cow/day

9.9 ± 0.15 a

11.9 ± 0.14

<0.001

Correlations between milk yield and composition traits showed no differences due to system or to season (Table 3).

Table 3. Pearson correlation between milk yield and composition in each production system

Conventional system

Milk fat

Protein

Lactose

NFS

TS

Yield

Milk fat

1

0.40 ***

- 0.16 **

- 0.45 **

0.58 **

- 0.27 ***

Protein

-

1

- 0.33 **

0.40 **

0.45 *

- 0.28 ***

Lactose

-

-

1

0.58 **

0.20 **

0.45 ***

NFS

-

-

-

1

0.85 ***

- 0.28 ***

TS

-

-

-

-

1

- 0.32 ***

Yield

-

-

-

-

-

1

Silvopastoral system

MilkFat

Protein

Lactose

NfS

TS

Yield

Milk fat

1

0.45 ***

- 0.20 **

- 0.40 **

0.60 **

- 0.30 ***

Protein

-

1

- 0.35 **

0.45 **

0.50 *

- 0.30 ***

Lactose

-

-

1

0.65 **

0.28 **

0.48 ***

NFS

-

-

-

1

0.88 ***

- 0.32 ***

TS

-

-

-

-

1

- 0.35 ***

Yield

-

-

-

-

-

1

* p ≤ 0.05; ** p ≤ 0.01; *** p ≤ 0.001 M. Yield = Milk yield (kg-1/cow-1/day -1)

The high correlation values between total solids and fat; total solids and non-fatty solids; protein and milk fat, confirm their biochemical and physiological relationship. Studies in Colombia (Barragán-Hernández et al 2016) have highlighted this same behavior among the milk components.


References

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Received 6 November 2019; Accepted 7 November 2019; Published 2 December 2019

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