scholarly journals Feeding ruminally protected methionine to pre- and postpartum dairy cows: effect on milk performance, milk composition and blood parameters

2009 ◽  
Vol 54 (No. 9) ◽  
pp. 395-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Kudrna ◽  
J. Illek ◽  
M. Marounek ◽  
A. Nguyen Ngoc

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of ruminally protected methionine (Mepron®, Degussa AG, Germany) in dairy cows. Three weeks before calving 36 cows (Holstein and Czech Fleckvieh breeds) were assigned to one of the two dietary treatments (M and O), and received a total mixed ration with protected methionine at 18.2 g per head per day or without this supplement. After calving, both groups were divided into two subgroups and fed a diet for dairy cows based on ensiled feeds and concentrates for 90 days. A half of the cows received protected methionine (subgroups MM and OM), the other cows were fed the same diet without protected methionine (subgroups MO and OO). Milk yield in cows fed protected methionine for the whole experiment duration (cows MM) was higher and feed intake was lower than in cows of the other groups. The effect of protected methionine on milk yield was not, however, statistically significant (<I>P</I> > 0.05). Effects of protected methionine on milk fat and protein were small and inconsistent. Supplemental methionine significantly increased the methionine concentration in serum (<I>P</I> < 0.05) while the methionine concentration in milk was not increased quite significantly (<I>P</I> < 0.10). Concentrations of essential amino acids in milk were significantly or marginally significantly higher in cows fed protected methionine. In summary, the supplementation of ruminally protected methionine at 18.2 g per head per day had beneficial, but small and mostly statistically insignificant effects on milk performance and milk composition.

Author(s):  
Jayaraj Neelima ◽  
Purushothaman Sajith ◽  
K. Ally ◽  
Ananth Deepa ◽  
Simon Shibu

An experiment was conducted on early lactating dairy cows to study the effect of rumen protected choline (RPC) and methionine (RPM) on milk yield and composition. Fifteen crossbred dairy cows in early lactation (within 10 days of calving) were selected and randomly allotted to any one of the following three dietary treatments, T1 (Control)- with compound feed mixture containing CP- 20% and TDN- 68% , T2- T1+20g RPM and 20g RPC, T3- with compound fed mixture containing CP- 17%, TDN- 68% + 20g RPM and 20g RPC. All the experimental animals were fed as per ICAR feeding standards (ICAR, 2013). Results revealed no significant difference (p>0.05) in milk yield and 4 per cent fat corrected milk (FCM) yield between the three treatment groups. Among the milk constituents, animals in T3 had significantly higher milk fat (p<0.05), SNF (p<0.05), protein (p<0.05) and total solids (p<0.01) compared to those in T1 and T2. Milk urea nitrogen levels did not differ significantly among the three treatments and were within the normal range. The study showed that milk composition could be effectively improved by supplementing feed with rumen protected forms of choline and methionine in combination at lower dietary protein level without any reduction in milk yield.


2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 21-24
Author(s):  
BA Useni ◽  
CJC Muller ◽  
CW Cruywagen

The objective of the study was to determine the effect of the duration of the dry period (DP) on the milk yield and milk composition during the following lactation. Milk performance records of 561 Holstein cows, with a previous DP from the Elsenburg Research Farm obtained from the National Milk Recording Scheme, were used in the study. Four groups of dairy cows were identified, based on the duration of their dry period, i.e. cows with a DP of less than 60 days, DP of 61 to 90 days, DP of 91 to 120 days and DP of more than 121 days. The number of records for each group was 76, 162, 83 and 240 lactations, respectively. An ANOVA was conducted using the Generalized Linear Model of SAS to compare milk yield and milk composition according to the DP length. Almost 43% of cows had a DP longer than 121 days, while less than 14% of cows had a DP of less than 60 days. The milk yield was positively affected by DP length. Cows with a DP of less than 60 days produced less milk than cows with longer (more than 61 days) dry periods, e.g. 6462 ± 321 vs. 7393 ± 99 kg. Results were similar for cows in their second and fourth parity. In addition, the milk composition of cows was also affected by DP length, i.e. higher fat and protein levels in the milk from cows with a short DP. Cows in the third lactation with a DP above 121 days produced more milk than the other DP groups. However, the milk composition of cows in the third lactation was not affected by DP length. A DP of less than 60 days reduced milk yield, while an extended DP of more than 121 days would be costly for the dairy farmer even though milk yield was higher. A long dry period may also result due to an excess body condition and calving complications during the subsequent lactation.Keywords: Dry period, milk yield, milk composition, dairy cows


Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 722
Author(s):  
Jang-Hoon Jo ◽  
Jalil Ghassemi Nejad ◽  
Dong-Qiao Peng ◽  
Hye-Ran Kim ◽  
Sang-Ho Kim ◽  
...  

This study aims to characterize the influence of short-term heat stress (HS; 4 day) in early lactating Holstein dairy cows, in terms of triggering blood metabolomics and parameters, milk yield and composition, and milk microRNA expression. Eight cows (milk yield = 30 ± 1.5 kg/day, parity = 1.09 ± 0.05) were homogeneously housed in environmentally controlled chambers, assigned into two groups with respect to the temperature humidity index (THI) at two distinct levels: approximately ~71 (low-temperature, low-humidity; LTLH) and ~86 (high-temperature, high-humidity; HTHH). Average feed intake (FI) dropped about 10 kg in the HTHH group, compared with the LTLH group (p = 0.001), whereas water intake was only numerically higher (p = 0.183) in the HTHH group than in the LTLH group. Physiological parameters, including rectal temperature (p = 0.001) and heart rate (p = 0.038), were significantly higher in the HTHH group than in the LTLH group. Plasma cortisol and haptoglobin were higher (p < 0.05) in the HTHH group, compared to the LTLH group. Milk yield, milk fat yield, 3.5% fat-corrected milk (FCM), and energy-corrected milk (ECM) were lower (p < 0.05) in the HTHH group than in the LTLH group. Higher relative expression of milk miRNA-216 was observed in the HTHH group (p < 0.05). Valine, isoleucine, methionine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, tryptophan, lactic acid, 3-phenylpropionic acid, 1,5-anhydro-D-sorbitol, myo-inositol, and urea were decreased (p < 0.05). These results suggest that early lactating cows are more vulnerable to short-term (4 day) high THI levels—that is, HTHH conditions—compared with LTLH, considering the enormous negative effects observed in measured blood metabolomics and parameters, milk yield and compositions, and milk miRNA-216 expression.


2020 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 334-340
Author(s):  
Elisa Manzocchi ◽  
Werner Hengartner ◽  
Michael Kreuzer ◽  
Katrin Giller

AbstractThis research paper addresses the hypotheses (1) that milk produced from hay-fed cows differs from that of silage-fed cows and (2) that silage type has an important impact, too. Four diets differing in forage type but with equal estimated milk production potential and a forage:concentrate ratio of 0.85 : 0.15 were compared regarding their effect on feed intake, milk yield and milk properties. The forages tested were hay, grass silage, conventional short-chopped and long-chopped maize silage subjected to a novel processing technology (Shredlage®). Twenty-four dairy cows were fed two of the four diets in two consecutive runs in an incomplete (4 × 2) Latin-square design (n = 12 per diet). Each experimental period lasted 22 d, with 12 d of adaptation and 10 d of sampling. During sampling, feed intake and milk yield were recorded daily, milk composition and coagulation properties were determined four times. The composition of the diet ingredients was analysed weekly. Data were analysed with a mixed model considering feed, period and their interaction as fixed effects. Stage of lactation, milk yield and milk composition from the pre-experimental period were used as covariates in the model. Dry matter intake was lower with the long-chopped processed maize silage compared to the other three groups. There were some diet differences in intakes of net energy for lactation and absorbable protein in the duodenum, but this did not result in changes in milk yield. The milk fat content was higher with the grassland-based diets compared to the maize silage diets. No treatment effect on milk acidity and rennet coagulation properties was observed. In conclusion, there were no indications for specific physico-chemical properties of milk from a hay-based diet, and maize processing technology was not of large effect either. Future investigations should focus on sensory differentiation of the milk produced with different forages.


2003 ◽  
Vol 2003 ◽  
pp. 107-107
Author(s):  
M. H. Fathi ◽  
A. Nikkhah

Cereal grains can provide the major source of energy in diets in order to meet the nutrient requirements of high producing dairy cows. However the amount of starch that can be included in the diets of dairy cows is limited particularly if starch is rapidly fermented such as barley starch. Reduction of feed intake, rumen pH, milk fat test, microbial growth and other metabolic disorders are expected if ruminally degradable starch is fed in amount that cant be efficiently metabolized by rumen microbs. Various techniques for processing barley grain have been developed to decrease the degradability of dry matter in rumen without reducing its extent of digestion. McNiven (1995) showed roasting of barley is more effective treatment. The objective of this experiment was to study of effects the roasting and ammoniation of barley grain on rumen pH, feces pH, milk yield and milk composition in dairy cows.


2011 ◽  
Vol 56 (No. 4) ◽  
pp. 181-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
X.J. Dai ◽  
C. Wang ◽  
Q. Zhu

The objective of the study was to investigate the effects of supplementing different plant oils to the basal diet on milk yield and milk composition in mid-lactating dairy cows. Forty Chinese Holstein dairy cows averaging 120 days in milk (DIM) at the start of the experiment (body weight = 580 &plusmn; 18.2 kg; milk yield = 33.0 &plusmn; 2.00 kg/day) were used in a completely randomized block design. The animals were assigned to four dietary treatments according to DIM and milk yield, and supplemented with no oil (control), 2% rapeseed oil (RSO), 2% peanut oil (PNO) and 2% sunflower seed oil (SFO). Milk yield and milk composition (fat, protein, and lactose) were measured. Dry matter intake was similar in all treatments. The supplementation of plant oil increased milk yield, with the highest milk yield in RSO group. Percentages of milk fat, lactose, solids-not-fat and SCC were not affected by treatments except for an increase in milk protein content in oil supplemented groups. The fatty acid (FA) profile of milk was altered by fat supplementation. Feeding plant oils reduced the proportion of both short-chain (C4:0 to C12:0) and medium-chain (C14:0 to C16:1) fatty acids, and increased the proportion of long-chain (&ge; C18:0) fatty acids in milk fat. The inclusion of vegetable oils increased the concentration of cis-9, trans-11 CLA. The cis-9, trans-11 CLA content in milk fat was higher from RSO to PNO and SFO was higher than the control. The TVA concentration was higher in the SFO diet, followed by PNO, RSO, and control diets. The results of this study indicated that linoleic acid was more effective in enhancing contents of TVA and CLA in milk fat than oleic acid. No significant effects of week and treatment by week interaction were found out in this study. Overall, feeding plant oils increased monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids and decreased saturated fatty acids in milk fat. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of RSO increases milk yield the most, while SFO enhances the cis-9, trans-11 CLA content in milk fat more effectively.


2000 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
TIMOTHY W. J. KEADY ◽  
C. SINCLAIR MAYNE ◽  
DEIRDRE A. FITZPATRICK

The effects of level of fish oil inclusion in the diet on grass silage intake, and milk yield and composition of dairy cows offered either 5 or 10 kg concentrates/d were evaluated in a ten treatment, partly balanced, changeover design experiment involving 50 cows in early lactation. Concentrates were prepared to provide 0, 150, 300 or 450 g fish oil/cow per d or 300 g fish oil/cow per d from a premix when each animal was offered 5 kg/d. The fish oil was predominantly from herring and mackerel caught in the North Atlantic while the fish oil premix was obtained from a commercial source and used palm kernel expeller as a carrier. Increasing fish oil supplementation decreased silage dry matter intake and the concentrations of milk fat and protein, and increased milk yield and diet digestibility. There were significant interactions between concentrate feed level and level of fish oil for silage intake and milk yield. Other than for the concentrations of milk fat and protein, and 20[ratio ]4n−6 fatty acids, the source of fish oil did not affect forage intake or animal performance. Fish oil supplementation also decreased the concentrations of milk protein by 0·9 g/kg for each 100 g increase in fish oil supplementation, the depression being similar at each level of concentrate feeding. Supplementing the feed of dairy cows with 450 g fish oil/cow per d decreased the concentration of milk fat by 15 g/kg. This study also showed that feeding dairy cattle with fish oil is an efficient method of increasing eicosapentaenoic acid in the human diet through transfer into milk.


2009 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Afolayan ◽  
N. M. Fogarty ◽  
J. E. Morgan ◽  
G. M. Gaunt ◽  
L. J. Cummins ◽  
...  

Milk production and milk composition were measured in 1056 crossbred ewes managed under pasture grazing in a lamb production system. Most ewes were milked on three occasions at ~3, 4 and 12 weeks of lactation. The ewes were the progeny of mainly Merino dams and 91 sires from several maternal crossing breeds including Border Leicester, East Friesian, Finnsheep and Coopworth. The ewes were born over 3 years and run at three sites where they were joined naturally to meat rams. Most of the ewes were first parity (autumn-joined at 7 months of age and spring-joined at 14–17 months of age), with the remainder second or third parity. The cohorts of ewes and sites were linked genetically by three common maternal sires. The 4-h oxytocin-induced milking procedure was used to estimate daily milk production and milk samples were analysed for composition (fat%, protein% and lactose%). Daily milk yield and milk composition traits were analysed using restricted maximum likelihood mixed models procedures. The sire breed of crossbred ewes was significant for milk yield (P < 0.01), fat% (P < 0.01) and lactose% (P < 0.05). There was a significant (P < 0.01) interaction of sire breed × days of lactation, mainly due to the relatively higher milk yield of the East Friesian and White Suffolk cross ewes compared with the other crosses, at the end of the lactation. The East Friesian cross ewes had lower milk fat% than the other cross ewes. Ewes suckling multiple lambs had 29% higher peak milk yield than those bearing and suckling single lambs (P < 0.001). There was an increase in peak milk yield of the ewes from first to second parity, and third parity ewes had a greater decline to the end of lactation causing a significant interaction (P < 0.001). The overall decline in milk yield from peak to late lactation was –21.2 ± 0.7 g/day. Separate analysis showed a significant increase in milk yield with ewe pre-joining weight (regression 6.1 ± 1.8 g/day.kg). The estimate of heritability for daily milk yield was 0.24 ± 0.04 at 90 days of lactation and 0.10 ± 0.02 at 21 days of lactation. The estimates of heritability for the milk composition traits were generally moderate. Estimates of genetic correlations between measurements early and late in the lactation for milk yield and most composition traits were high. The within ewe by stage variance component estimates of repeatability were moderate to high for milk yield, fat% and protein%, with lactose% being low.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jialin Wei ◽  
Mengying Dou ◽  
Shuai Liu ◽  
Bichuan Yan ◽  
Cuiyu Li ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Because of disadvantages of excessive dietary crude protein (CP), decreasing dietary CP of dairy cows has attracted the worldwide attention. Rumen protected methionine (RPM) supplementation can allow lower CP diets and is beneficial to milk production performance, N efficiency of cows and environment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of reducing dietary CP and supplementing RPM on production, digestibility of nutrients, blood parameters, ruminal metabolites and economic effectiveness in lactating Holstein dairy cows. Results: A total of 96 lactating cows (63 ± 25 d in milk; 34.4 ± 5.74 kg/d of milk production; mean ± SD) were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 treatments: diet containing 17.3% CP without RPM (control group; CON; n = 49); diet containing 16.4% CP with supplementing 15.0 g/d of RPM (treatment group; RPM; n = 47). No effect was observed of reducing dietary CP on milk yield and milk composition. The apparent digestibility of nutrients was similar between treatments. The results related to blood showed that cows in RPM group exhibited lower concentration of blood urea nitrogen than that in CON group (P < 0.001). Moreover, there were no differences between treatments on concentrations of aspartate transaminase, alanine transaminase, alkaline phosphatase, globulin and albumin. In ruminal metabolites, microbial crude protein (MCP) of dairy cows in RPM group was higher compared with CON group (P = 0.006). Ruminal volatile fatty acid (VFA) contents were not changed by treatments except that the concentrations of butyrate and isovalerate of RPM group were higher than that of CON group at 2 h after feeding (P < 0.05). In addition, supplying the diet of 16.4% CP with RPM supplementation to cows could reduce feeding cost by 0.5 $/d per cow and boost net profits. Conclusions: Lower dietary CP with RPM supplementation did not limit milk yield, milk composition and apparent digestibility of nutrients, and could improve nitrogen utilization of dairy cows and synthesis of MCP in rumen, change VFA production at 2 h after feeding, as well as boost the economic benefits of the dairy farms.


Author(s):  
S.L. Woodward ◽  
A.V. Chaves ◽  
G.C. Waghorn ◽  
P.G. Laboyrie

Forages suitable for supplementing pasture-fed dairy cows over summer-autumn must provide adequate dry matter (DM) and increase milk yield above that produced by cows grazing normal ryegrass/white clover pasture, without compromising milk composition. A trial was conducted in January-February 2001 to compare the benefits obtained from feeding four types of silage. There were two silages that contained condensed tannins (CT) (birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) and sulla (Hedysarum coronarium)), maize silage or traditional ryegrass-dominant pasture silage, all fed at 5 kg DM/cow/d with restricted pasture. Cows on the restricted pasture (control) treatment and those fed the silage treatments were offered an allowance of 25 kg DM pasture/cow/d, while the full pasture cows were offered 50 kg DM pasture/cow/d. Silage supplementation, regardless of silage type, increased both total dry matter intake (DMI) and milk production compared with the restricted pasture treatment. Cows on the Lotus silage supplement, and the full pasture treatment had significantly higher milk yields than the other silage-supplemented cows, all of which had similar milk yields. For the Lotus silage treatment, the high milk yield was probably due to a combination of the higher nutritive value of the silage, and to the action of CT, because the total DMI of the cows on the Lotus silage was the same as that of cows on the pasture silage and maize silage. The high milk yield of the full pasture treatment was mainly a result of the cows having a significantly higher total DMI than cows on all the other treatments. This trial has demonstrated the potential benefit of silage supplementation, particularly with Lotus silage, for increased milksolids yield in summerautumn when low pasture growth rates and quality may otherwise limit production. Keywords: condensed tannins, dairy cows, Lotus, maize, milksolids, ryegrass, silage, sulla, supplementation


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