Relación entre la disponibilidad primaria de los pastizales y la producción de leche en vacas al pastoreo, en los sistemas ganaderos en la zona occidental de la provincia del Azuay

Abstract

The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of the species present in the pastureland and the availability of dry matter, in response to the production of dairy cows grazing in the western area of Azuay province, where 464 livestock were valued, which are distributed in three agro ecological zones (coastal, Andean foothills and high Andean) at altitudes between 10 and 3 614 meters above sea level. The determination of the botanical composition was made by the manual separation method, while the dry matter was established by the dry weight method by microwaves. The botanical composition in the coastal zone is formed only by grass species, it predominated savoy grass with 22 %, with yield of 8 651.79 kg/ha with milk production of 2.8 kg/cow/day and 3.8 kg/ha/day. While in the Andean foothills and high Andean, the predominant grass is the kikuyo with 62.53 and 43.67% respectively. The predominant legume is white clover with 53.04 and 40.71% in these two zones. Kikuyo reached DM yield of 2 846.3 kg/ha in the Andean foothill zone and 3 301.8 kg/ha in the Andean highlands with a milk production of 6.4 kg/cow/day in the two zones and 17 and 15.9 kg/ha/day respectively, while the white clover reached DM yield of 3 017.4 kg/ha and 3 595.1 kg/ ha respectively for the two zones, with a milk production of 6.2 and 6.4 kg/cow/day and 16.5 and 16.7 kg/ha/day respectively for these two zones. The predominant pastures have a positive influence on dairy production in the foothills and high Andean areas, but not in the coastal areas. Evaluated the effect of grasses and legumes in ranks on milk production, only legumes in values greater than 5 percent in the high Andean area have a marked influence.