ECONOMIC EFFECTIVENESS OF MINERAL MIXTURES BALANCING MINERAL NUTRITION OF COWS IN CHOSEN BARNS OF CENTRAL-EAST POLAND

Abstract

The aim of this elaboration was the evaluation of economic effectiveness of mineral mixtures, composed according to the authors’ original recipes, balancing mineral nutrition of cows. The investigations were carried out within 90 days of summer feeding in eight dairy cow barns, using either traditional (4 objects, 4878 kg yearly milk yield) or intensive (4 objects, 7651 kg) model of feeding. The economic analysis of the achieved results, using the differential calculation method, took into account only these kinds of the expenditures and effects, which differentiated the compared treatments, excluding the common expenditures and effects. The utilization of the investigated mineral mixtures to the traditional diets increased by 8% milk yield, which made an economic advantage 41.36 zl/head in the investigated period. The replacement of the commercial mineral mixtures used in the barns with intensive feeding model by the mixture of our recipe did not influence significantly milk yield of cows.