Mjölkintäkt minus foderkostnad i mjölkproduktionen
en jämförelse mellan besättningar med fullfoder och separat utfodring
There are various arguments for using total mixed rations (TMR) or not. Cows can easily become fat and thus poorly utilize the feed while it can be stated that TMR also has a positive effect on cows? health and wellbeing as the rumen environment is more constant than when separate feeding is applied. Studies do show that that especially low yielding cows kept in groups get fatter when fed TMR. The overfeeding implicates higher feeding costs.
This study included 10 herds where 5 had TMR and 5 hade separate feeding of forage and concentrates. The milk yield and feed consumption was registered for one day at each herd. A comparison between the herds was made by using milk income minus the cost of the feed.
The results show that the herds that used TMR had a slightly lower net milk income (total milk income minus cost of feeds). There was a relationship between milk yield and amount of feed. More feed consumed resulted in more milk. Higher milk yield gave a higher net income, but the herd with the highest milk yield had not the highest net income.
The result found in this study was similar to what others have found. As only 10 herds were used in this study, each herd had a large influence on the result.