RATIONALE OF FEEDING SYSTEMS FOR LACTATING DAIRY-COWS

Manipulations of the lactation cycle are achieved through nutritional regimens and generally result in a restriction of the physiological lactation cycle. Most models of lactation used in management programmes only describe the average time course of lactation for groups of cows on a given feeding regimen. This is inadequate for the variety of feeding systems in use on British farms. In the present paper several existing models of lactation have been critically evaluated. An integral equation approach has been developed to rationalize experimental observations and currently accepted biological concepts. © 1990, Proprietors of Journal of Dairy Research. All rights reserved.