Group Project

Question 1

What was the null hypothesis tested in our project?

Answer 1

That there is no change to the grazing behaviour of dairy cattle in early lactation as a result of changing plantain content

Question 2

What are the key points for the background to our experiment?

Answer 2

Transition between pregnancy and lactation is an important period for farmers to manage. Must ensure intakes are maintained during this time to ensure adequate milk production and reproductive results. Plantain has a differing chemical composition to PR and WC pasture, so investigating if this has an effect on rumination and therefore intake through measuring grazing behaviour

Question 3

How does the chemical composition of plantain differ from perennial ryegrass and white clover pasture?

Answer 3

higher water content, higher ratio of soluble carbohydrates to nitrogen in herbage, differing protein content and digestibility, as well as secondary compounds that result in a diuretic effect on the cow, increasing urinary output (Dool et al., 2018) Only 9-10% DM in spring compared to PR which is 12-18% dry matter.

Question 4

What experimental design did we use?

Answer 4

randomized factorial design with 3 treatments and 3 replicates of each treatment

Question 5

Describe the 3 treatments in our expiriment

Answer 5

PL0 = 0% sown plantain. PL30 = 30% sown plantain. PL50 = 50% sown plantain.

Question 6

Describe the advantages of our expirimental design.

Answer 6

high amounts of replicates for each treatment with 9 herds.

Question 7

Describe the disadvantages of our expirimental design

Answer 7

Doesn’t account for variability which we can’t control in soil type etc.

Question 8

List the 5 measurements we took in this investigation

Answer 8

DM yield, Bite Rate, Botanical Composition, Chemical Composition, Rumination

Question 9

What statistical analysis did we use for our data?

Answer 9

ANOVA and correlation.

Question 10

What were our main conclusions from the research?

Answer 10

Plantain doesn’t change the grazing behaviour of dairy cows, so can be a good choice for dairy farmers to utilise. The differing actual plantain content to sown is a limitation to our results. No statistically significant differences in rumination time and daily eating time suggesting no differences to intake.

Question 11

What was the average bite rate for the PL0, PL30 and PL50 treatments

Answer 11

PL0 - 43.7BPM, PL30- 56 BPM, PL50- 74 BPM

Question 12

Which treatments had a statistically significant difference and which didn’t?

Answer 12

PL0 > PL30 was significant, but PL30>PL50 didn’t.

Question 13

What was the actual plantain content of the PL0, PL30 and PL50 treatments?

Answer 13

PL0 = 0%, PL30 = 3%, PL50 = 19%