Effect of limit feeding high- and low-concentrate diets with Saccharomyces cerevisiae on digestibility and on dairy heifer growth and first-lactation performance

Abstract

Growth and digestibility were examined for heifers limit fed high- (HC; 60%) and low-concentrate (LC; 20%) diets with or without yeast culture (YC) addition in 2 experiments. A third experiment was undertaken to monitor first-lactation production of heifers limit fed HC or LC diets. In experiment 1, 32 Holstein heifers were individually fed at controlled intakes for 133 d to maintain a targeted average daily gain of 0.80 kg/d for all 4 treatments [HC; LC with and without Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Yea-Sacc(1026) (Alltech Inc., Nicholasville, KY), 1 g/kg as fed]. Targeted average daily gain was achieved for all treatments during the individual feeding period (0.80 +/- 0.01 kg/d). Average dry matter intake needed to maintain constant gain was slightly reduced for HC and YC treatments. Reduced dry matter intake and similar targeted average daily gain resulted in a tendency for improved feed efficiency of HC-fed heifers. Skeletal measurements and targeted average daily gain were not affected by concentrate level or YC. The objective of experiment 2 was to elucidate effects of concentrate level and YC on nutrient digestibility. Four young (284.35 +/- 4.51 d) and 4 older (410.28 +/- 2.14 d) heifers were allocated to the 4 treatments used in experiment 1. Heifers fed the HC diet had increased dry matter digestibility (75.67 vs.72.96 +/- 0.72%), and YC addition increased dry matter digestibility (74.97 vs. 73.65 +/- 0.71%). Intake of N and apparent N digestibility were similar for all treatments. High-concentrate diets and YC addition decreased wet and dry matter output of feces. Urine excretion was not different; therefore, total manure output was lower for HC-fed heifers as compared with LC-fed heifers. Results suggest that HC diets can improve feed efficiency without affecting growth when limit fed to dairy heifers. Yeast culture increased dry matter digestibility in HC- and LC-fed heifers; HC diets were more digestible and reduced fecal output, with YC enhancing this effect. In experiment 3, heifers from experiment 1 were group fed the same diets (HC or LC) without YC until parturition, and milk production was measured through 154 d of lactation. Group-fed average daily gain was not different between treatments (HC = 1.11 vs. LC = 1.04 kg/d, SE = +/-0.06 kg/d). Heifers fed the HC and LC diets calved at 23.50 and 23.79 +/- 0.50 mo, respectively. Peak milk was lower and there was a tendency for reduced daily milk and protein yield for primiparous cows fed HC diets from 8 mo of age to the dry/prefresh period (long term), but predicted yields of milk and components were similar in the first 154 d of lactation.

Precision-feeding dairy heifers a high rumen-degradable protein diet with different proportions of dietary fiber and forage-to-concentrate ratios

“…In agreement with these observations, Lascano and Heinrichs (2009) reported lower rumen turnover rates as F:C decreased from 80:20 to 40:60 in control-fed heifers (88 to 78%, respectively) and when comparing LF to HF diets (Lascano and Heinrichs, 2011). It has also been reported that decreasing F:C increases microbial protein yield (Pina et al, 2009;Lascano et al, 2009a); it is important to notice that these experiments decreased the F:C from 80:20 to 60:40 and from 80:20 to 40:60 in the diet, respectively. This is in agreement with results from the present experiment, where LF diet had greater predicted microbial protein (544.64 vs. 371.22 g/d); however, in as HS increased in LF, microbial protein was reduced.…”

Effects of limit‐feeding diets with different forage‐to‐concentrate ratios on nutrient intake, rumination, ruminal fermentation, digestibility, blood parameters and growth in Holstein heifers

“…Intakes of ME and CP were controlled similar across treatments in this study, as done in previous studies (Lascano et al . ; Zanton & Heinrichs ). By definition limit‐feeding usually decreases DM and OM intakes with increasing dietary concentrate levels (Lascano et al .…”

“…Animal growth, represented by BW, withers height, body length, heart girth, paunch girth, cannon circumference, hip width and hip height, were measured on two consecutive days each week approximately 1 h before feeding, and the mean values were used to account for day‐to‐day variation (Lascano et al . ). The ADG (with gut fill) was calculated from the BW averaged over 2 days every second week, and then calculated for feed efficiency (ADG/DMI, FE).…”

“…Moreover, only two or three concentrate levels (60% vs. 20%: Lascano et al . ; 75% vs. 25%: Zanton & Heinrichs ; 55% vs. 10%: Lascano et al . ; 37% vs. 20% vs. 6%: Hoffman ) were used in previous studies, which does not provide a large enough range to develop models to predict physiological variation to result in a better understanding on limit‐feeding high concentrate diets to heifers.…”

Effects of yeast culture supplementation and the ratio of non‐structural carbohydrate to fat on growth performance, carcass traits and the fatty acid profile of the longissimus dorsi muscle in lambs

“…The differences of abovementioned results might be ascribed to many reasons, some researchers suggested that the dietary composition is one of the important factors (Can et al, 2007;Grochowska, Nowak, Mikula, & Kasprowiczpotocka, 2012). Previous studies have evaluated the effect of supplemental YC on digestibility and growth of ruminants under different concentrate levels (Chademana & Offer, 1990;Lascano, Zanton, Suarez-Mena, & Heinrichs, 2009); different levels of dietary protein and energy have significant effects on the YC supplementation (Deaville & Galbraith, 1992;Harris, Dorminey, Smith, Horn, & Wilcox, 1992). Carbohydrates and fats are considered to be two types of energetic substances depending on whether they can provide the substrates that is rapidly fermented into VFA in the rumen.…”