Increasing pasture diversity and spatially separated sowing arrangements can potentially increase the dry matter intake of high-quality forages leading to improved animal production. This study investigated the effects of simple (two-species) and diverse (six-species) pastures planted either in mixed or spatially separated adjacent pasture strips on performance, N partitioning, and methane emission of dairy cows. Thirty-six mid-lactation Jersey cows grazed either (1) simple mixed, (2) simple spatially separated, (3) diverse mixed, or (4) diverse spatially separated pastures planted in a complete randomized block design with three replicates. Compared to simple pasture, diverse pasture had lower CP content but higher condensed tannins and total phenolic compounds with an overall positive effect on yield of milk solids, nitrogen utilization, including a reduction of N output from urine, and methane yields per dry matter eaten. The spatial separation increased legume and CP content in simple pasture but decreased NDF in both diverse and simple pastures. In conclusion, increasing diversity using pasture species with higher nutritive value and secondary compounds can help improving the production while decreasing the environmental effect of dairy farming, while spatial separation had a minor effect on feed intake and yield, possibly due to overall high-quality pastures in early spring.

中文翻译：

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在混合或空间分隔的简单牧场中放牧的奶牛的产奶量，氮分配量和甲烷排放量。

牧场多样性的增加和空间上分开的播种安排可能会增加优质草料的干物质摄入量，从而改善动物生产。这项研究调查了在混合或空间分隔的相邻牧场条中种植的简单（两种）和多种（六种）牧场对奶牛的生产性能，氮分配和甲烷排放的影响。三十六只泌乳中期的泽西奶牛以完整的随机区组设计和三个重复进行放牧（1）简单混合，（2）简单空间分离，（3）不同混合，或（4）不同空间分离的牧场。与简单牧场相比，多样化牧场的CP含量较低，但单宁和总酚类化合物的含量较高，对牛奶固形物的产量，氮的利用，包括减少尿液中氮的含量以及每食用干物质的甲烷产量。空间分隔增加了简单牧场中豆类和CP的含量，但减少了多样化和简单牧场中NDF的含量。总之，使用具有较高营养价值的牧草种类和次要化合物来增加多样性可以帮助提高产量，同时降低奶牛养殖的环境影响，而空间分离对饲料的采食量和产量的影响较小，这可能是由于总体上优质的牧草在早春。