Effects of a rumen-protected form of methionine and a methionine analogue on the lactation performance of dairy cows

Abstract

AbstrAct:The objective the present study was to determine the influence of a supplemental methionine analogue, the isopropyl ester of 2-hydroxy-4-(methylthio)-butanoic acid, commercially available as MetaSmart TM , on lactation performance, particularly milk protein production. The effects of this preparation were compared with those of a rumen-protected form of methionine, marketed as Smartamine TM M. Experiments were conducted according to a 3 × 3 Latin square design and included 30 high-yielding dairy cows (22 Holstein and 8 Czech Fleckvieh) randomly allocated to three balanced groups. Cows were fed a basal diet based on maize silage, lucerne silage, lucerne hay, fresh brewer's grains, and a concentrate mixture in the form of a total mixed ration ad libitum. The diet M was supplemented with MetaSmart TM (42.5 g/day) and diet S was supplemented with Smartamine TM M (19 g/day), while control diet C contained solvent-extracted soybean meal, which was added to achieve required levels of dietary protein. Each period lasted four weeks in total, including three preliminary weeks and one experimental week during which samples of milk and tail vein blood were taken. Supplementation of MetaSmart TM decreased dry matter intake of cows (18.96 kg) in contrast to the diet containing Smartamine TM M, for which dry matter intake was the highest (20.48 kg; P < 0.001). Despite decreased dry matter intake, the highest average milk yields were recorded for cows supplemented with MetaSmart TM (31.34 kg), which produced by approximately 1.14 kg (P < 0.001) and 0.78 kg (P < 0.01) more milk than cows fed diets C and S, respectively. As expressed by greater ratios milk/DMI, FCM/DMI, and ECM/DMI, the feed efficiency was improved in cows supplemented with MetaSmart TM . Both MetaSmart TM and Smartamine TM M dietary supplementation increased milk yield, milk protein concentrations, and yields and increased the prevalence of β-casein fraction in milk protein.

Effects of ruminally protected methionine and/or phenylalanine on performance of high producing Holstein cows fed rations with very high levels of canola meal

“…In many feeding situations, supplementation of Met has been shown to increase milk protein content (Chen et al, 2011) and/or yield (Čermáková et al, 2012;Osorio et al, 2013) as well as milk fat content (Wang et al, 2010). This has also been confirmed in a recent systemic review of the literature (Robinson, 2010) and meta-analysis (Patton, 2010), and it agrees with our results in which milk protein and fat proportions increased modestly with the MET treatment.…”

“…This has also been confirmed in a recent systemic review of the literature (Robinson, 2010) and meta-analysis (Patton, 2010), and it agrees with our results in which milk protein and fat proportions increased modestly with the MET treatment. Patton (2010) suggests that a slight increase in milk yield can also be expected, and, even though this is consistent with the increases in milk yield reported earlier (Wang et al, 2010;Čermáková et al, 2012;Osorio et al, 2013), it does not agree with the reduction in milk lactose yield, or the tendency for milk yield to decrease with MET, in our study. A study by Robinson et al (2000), to determine effects of a Met oversupply, showed that abomasal Met infusion to increase its intestinal delivery by 34 to 39% markedly reduced animal performance.…”

Effect of fat supplementation and stage of lactation on methane production in dairy cows

“…Addition of fat increased the ECM yield compared to CON; however, there was no significant difference, probably due to the low number of animals used. Adding HMBi to the diet resulted in the numerical highest ECM yield, both in the production trial and in the present study, as also observed by Phipps et al (2010) and Cermáková et al (2012). However, the effect of HMBi supplementation was only +0.7 kg ECM/d in the production trial (Alstrup et al, 2015) compared to +3.2 kg ECM/d in the present experiment.…”

Effects of Dietary Supplementation with 2-Hydroxy-4-(methylthio)-butanoic Acid Isopropyl Ester as a Methionine Supplement on Nitrogen Utilization in Steers

“…The results of the present experiment also showed that supplementing HMBi at 12 or 24 g d −1 did not affect the plasma concentrations of total protein, albumin, glucose, total cholesterol, triglyceride, urea, uric acid, and creatinine ( Table 5 ). The results were in agreement with Čermáková et al [ 31 ] who reported that supplementing HMBi at 0.16% DM did not affect the plasma concentrations of total protein and urea in dairy cows fed a diet based on alfalfa, corn silages, and ensiled corn cobs. However, Han et al [ 14 ] reported that supplementing HMBi at 25 g d −1 increased the serum concentrations of total protein and albumin and decreased the serum concentration of urea in steers fed a diet based on corn silage and corn.…”