Effects of Beet Pulp and Animal By-Products on Milk Yield and In Vitro Fermentation by Rumen Microorganisms

Abstract

Forty-six Holstein cows (30 primiparous) were assigned to one of four dietary treatments arranged as a 2 x 2 factorial experiment during wk 4 to 17 of lactation. Main effects were corn versus dried sugar beet pulp and soybean meal versus animal by-product meal (mixture of meat and bone meal, feather meal, and blood meal). Beet pulp replaced half of the corn at 15% of dietary DM. Diet DM (mean of four treatments) contained 18% alfalfa pellets, 17.4% alfalfa hay, 17.2% corn silage, and 47.1% concentrate. Milk yield did not differ among treatments (mean 32.0 kg/d). Dry matter intake, milk CP percentage, and milk CP yield decreased 5.6, 3.7 and 5.2%, respectively, but milk fat percentage increased 4.7% when beet pulp replaced corn. Animal by-products did not affect DMI or milk fat, but milk CP percentage decreased 3.0%. The same diets were evaluated in a continuous culture system. Fungal extract (Aspergillus oryzae), added as the third treatment, had little effect on fermentation. Digestion of DM, OM, NDF, and ADF were not affected by dietary treatments. Molar proportion of acetate was greater when corn was replaced by beet pulp. Although flow of NAN from fermenters increased by 3.2% with beet pulp and 3.1% with animal by-products, milk CP percentages decreased.

Effects of pressed beet pulp silage inclusion in maize-based rations on performance of high-yielding dairy cows and parameters of rumen fermentation

“…In consequence, neither was the mean daily NEL intake of the cows different between the treatments nor were the yields of milk, milk fat and milk protein affected. These findings are in agreement with previous studies comparing maize with beet pulp in TMR (Mansfield et al, 1994;Clark and Armentano, 1997;Voelker and Allen, 2003b). It is worth mentioning that both the inclusion level of beet pulp silage in the ration (20% of DM) and the level of milk yield were very high in the present study.…”

“…Previous studies with fresh beet pulp indicated an increase in milk yield and a decrease in milk fat content Parkins et al, 1986). Experiments with rations containing dried beet pulp have reported inconsistent effects on feed intake, milk yield and fat-corrected milk yield (Mansfield et al, 1994;Clark and Armentano, 1997). However, in all experiments the performance of dairy cows was on a low level.…”

“…According to Voelker and Allen (2003b), the DM intake was constant with increasing level of dried beet pulp inclusion in the diet up to 24%. Mansfield et al (1994) reported a reduction in feed consumption because of the poor acceptance of the pelleted beet pulp. The replacement of alfalfa fibre with beet pulp fibre increased the DM intake by 0.4 kg/day in the study of Clark and Armentano (1997).…”

Effect of dry beet pulp on milk yield and milk composition in Chilean Holstein cows

“…Contrary to our results, previous studies reported no effects of the substitution of dried beet pulp for corn grain on milk yield (Kajikawa et al 1990;Mansfield et al 1994;Swain & Armentano 1994;Clark & Armentano 1997). These findings were remarkable because diets based on only corn grain and low fiber were expected to produce more milk.…”

Effects of partial replacement of barley with sugar beet pulp on pre- and post-partum performance of Zel ewes

“…Non-forage fibre sources have higher available energy values than most forages (Firkins, 1997), higher fibre digestibility (Cunningham et al, 1993) and molar proportions of acetate (Mansfield et al, 1994) when replacing cereal grains, and have a lower NFC content than most starchy cereal grains (NRC, 2001). Beet pulp has a similar range of NDF content as forages but its particle size is generally smaller than that of forages (Allen, 2000) and is unique in its high concentration of neutral detergent soluble fibre, especially pectic substances (Voelker & Allen, 2003;Dann et al, 2007;Murray et al, 2008).…”