Responses in dairy cows to increased inclusion of wheat in maize and grass silage based diets |
| |
| Authors: | M Hetta M N Tahir C Swensson |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Department of Agricultural Research for Northern Sweden , Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences , Ume?, Sweden marten.hetta@njv.slu.se;3. Department of Agricultural Research for Northern Sweden , Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences , Ume?, Sweden;4. Department of Rural Building and Animal Husbandry , Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences , Alnarp, Sweden;5. Swedish Dairy Association , Lund, Sweden |
| |
| Abstract: | Abstract The effects of including wheat in the total mixed rations of dairy cows were evaluated using a 4×4 Latin square dose response experiment with 28 dairy cows (Swedish red). The animals were averaging 150 days in milk at the start of the experiment. Diets consisted of mixtures of maize and grass silage with wheat grain at four levels (8, 16, 24 and 32% of dry matter (DM)). The animals consumed 17.8, 19.7, 21.1 and 23.8 kg of DM and produced 28.1, 29.1 29.6 and 30.2 kg of energy corrected milk, respectively. Digestibility of DM and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) was determined using indigestible NDF (iNDF) as a marker. DM digestibility, feed intake and milk and protein yields increased with increasing wheat content while the milk fat concentration, the digestibility of NDF and the feed efficiency of the diets decreased. |
| |
| Keywords: | Digestibility feed efficiency indigestible NDF milk production starch concentration |
|
|
