Dairy cows grazing an alpine pasture: effect of pattern of supplement allocation on herbage intake, body condition, milk yield and coagulation properties

The effect of two patterns of concentrate allocationwere studied on twenty-eight Italian Brown cows (initial milk yield, 19.4 kg·d–1) grazing an alpine pasture. One group was supplemented at a flat rate, based on the initialmilk production (Flat Supplement, FS),while the secondwas supplemented at a declining rate, according to the decline of lactation (Declining Supplement, DS). During an 8-week period in July and August, the cowsweremoved onto 8 successive sectors, ensuring a daily herbage allowance of 20 kg of drymatter per cow. The crude protein content of the herbage decreased from 19.5% at the beginning to 12.4% at the end, while the fibre fractions showed an opposite trend.The DS group showed a slightly higher, not significant, herbage intake (10.9 vs. 10.6 kg OM·d–1). BCS changes were in no case different from 0. The milk yield was positively affected by the FS (17.0 kg·d–1 vs. 15.2 kg·d–1); no difference was observed inmilk composition. Coagulation propertieswere satisfactory without any appreciable effect of the two treatments.