The effects of concentrate energy source on milk composition of lactating dairy cattle offered grass silage

Abstract

AbstractTwo partially balanced change-over design experiments were undertaken to examine the effects of concentrate energy source on milk yield and composition of lactating diary cows offered a diverse range of grass silages. A total of nine silages differing in fermentation digestibility and intake characteristics were produced in experiments 1 and 2. Silage dry matter (DM) concentration ranged from 170 to 473 g/kg, ammonia nitrogen ranged from 58 to 356 g/kg nitrogen, digestible organic matter in the DM ranged from 551 to 724 g/kg and silage DM intake potential ranged from 57 to 103.8 g/kg w0.75 respectively. In experiment 1, 5 concentrates were formulated to contain similar concentrations of crude protein (CP), effective rumen degradable protein (ERDP), metabolizable energy (ME) and digestible undegradable protein (DUP) while three concentrates were formulated in experiment 2 to contain similar concentrations of CP, ME and DUP. The concentrates were prepared using barley, wheat, sugar beet pulp and citrus pulp as energy sources and formulated to achieve a wide range of starch concentrations. Starch concentrations ranged from 50 to 384 g/kg DM and 22 to 273 g/kg DM in experiments 1 and 2 respectively. There were no concentrate energy source by silage type interactions for silage intake, milk yield and composition. It is concluded that increasing starch intake resulted in positive and negative linear relationships for milk protein (P<0.001, R2 = 0.96) and fat (P<0.001, R2 = 0.85) concentrations respectively. Concentrate energy source had no effect on silage DM intake or milk yield.