Effect of Forage Type on Milk Production and Quality of Greek Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)

In an experiment with twenty four lactating Greek buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) cows, effects of total replacement of alfalfa hay (AH) with corn silage (CS) on productivity and milk composition were determined. In the experiment, which started on week 10 postpartum, buffalo cows were allocated, after equal distribution relative to milk yield and lactation number (i.e., 2 or 3), into 2 treatments being AH and CS of 12 buffalo cows each. For a period of 8 weeks (i.e., weeks 10-18 postpartum), buffalo cows were individually fed a concentrate mixture (7.3 kg dry matter – DM/buffalo cow/day), wheat straw (1.8 kg DM/buffalo cow/day) and alfalfa hay (treatment AH; 5.4 kg DM/buffalo cow/day) or corn silage (treatment CS; 5.6 kg DM/buffalo cow/day). In the 8-week experimental period, there were no differences (P>0.05) between AH and CS treatments in milk fat (81.0 g/kg), protein (46.1 g/kg), lactose (51.2 g/kg) or ash (8.1 g/kg) contents, as well as in somatic cell counts (SSC; 108.8 ×1000 SSC/ml) and colony forming units (CFU; 53.6 ×1000 CFU/ml) of milk. Moreover, average milk yield (5.8 kg/day), and fat (0.47 kg/day), protein (0.26 kg/day), lactose (0.29 kg/day) and ash (0.047 kg/day) yields, was not affected (P>0.05). Thus, total replacement of alfalfa hay with corn silage as the main forage source in diets of lactating Greek buffalo cows resulted in similar productive performance.