Effects of energy density in close-up diets and postpartum supplementation of extruded full-fat soybean on lactation performance and metabolic and hormonal status of dairy cows

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of energy density (ED) in the close-up period and supplementation of extruded full-fat soybean (ESB) during the first 4 wk after parturition on intake, body weight (BW), metabolic status, and performance of dairy cows. Fifty-seven Chinese Holstein cows with similar parity, previous 305-d milk yield, and expected calving date were dried off at -60 d relative to parturition and fed the standard herd dry-cow diet until -21 d relative to parturition. Energy density at low (LED, 1.25 Mcal/kg), medium (MED, 1.41 Mcal/kg) or high (HED, 1.55 Mcal/kg) levels of the close-up diets and postpartum supplementation of ESB at 0 kg/d (control, CON) or 1.5 kg/d (TRT) were used in a 3 × 2 factorial arrangement. All cows received the same CON diet from wk 5 to wk 8. As ED increased in the close-up diet, cows had higher dry matter intake and gained more BW and body condition score, and consequently were in improved energy balance status during the prepartum period, but lost more BW and more body condition score during the first 8 wk of lactation. Compared with LED cows, HED cows had higher blood concentrations of insulin and glucose, and lower nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA) prepartum, but had lower insulin concentration, higher leptin concentration and tended to have higher NEFA concentration postpartum. Milk production was not affected by the prepartum ED, although HED cows produced approximately 2 kg/d less milk than MED and LED cows during early lactation. Postpartum ESB supplementation elevated blood glucagon concentration regardless of prepartum ED during the first 4 wk of lactation. Interactive effects between prepartum ED and postpartum ESB supplementation were observed in blood concentrations of insulin, NEFA, bilirubin, total protein, albumin, and globulin. During early lactation, TRT decreased globulin concentrations in MED cows, and reduced NEFA and bilirubin concentrations in HED cows. Compared with CON, TRT cows had higher yields of milk (34.32 vs. 36.53 kg/d), milk lactose (1.63 vs. 1.74 kg/d), and solids-nonfat (2.98 vs. 3.18 kg/d), tended to have a greater yield of milk protein (1.11 vs. 1.17 kg/d), but tended to have lower milk fat percentage (4.18 vs. 3.94%) during the first 4 wk of lactation. In conclusion, compared with feeding the HED diet, feeding the LED diet during the close-up dry period had positive carryover effects on metabolism and production during early lactation, and the MED diet showed no advantage over the LED diet. Extruded full-fat soybean supplementation during the first 4 wk of lactation had positive effects on postpartum metabolic status, especially for those receiving the MED or HED diet prepartum, and resulted in an overall improved milk production during early lactation.

Insulin resistance: Relationship between indices during late gestation in dairy cows and effects on newborn metabolism

“…BCS, serum glucose, NEFA, and T‐Cho concentrations, and serum AST activities were within the standard values for the dry period reported by Kida (). In addition, the changes in plasma concentrations of insulin and leptin, and the serum concentrations of BHB (Zhang, Su, Wang, Cao, & Li, ) and Alb (Kawashima et al, ) during late gestation were within approximately the same ranges as reported previously. Therefore, the herd examined in the present study appeared to have normal levels of the selected metabolites.…”

Concentrate supplementation of a diet based on medium-quality grass silage for 4 weeks prepartum: Effects on cow performance, health, metabolic status, and immune function

“…Offering concentrates in addition to a grass silage-based diet during the 4 wk prepartum resulted in a higher prepartum total DMI (P < 0.001; Figure 1a) and lower prepartum silage DMI (P < 0.001; Table 3), in agreement with others (Keady et al, 2001;McNamara et al, 2003b). Similarly, offering a more energy-dense TMR during the close-up prepartum period has also been shown to increase prepartum DMI compared with offering less energy-dense diets (Holcomb et al, 2001;Rabelo et al, 2003;Zhang et al, 2015). A treatment × parity interaction was present for total DMI prepartum (P = 0.014), with the respective values for cows and heifers being 11.2 and 8.9 kg/cow per d for SO and 15.0 and 10.0 kg/cow per d for S+C.…”

“…Offering higher energy TMR diets for the entire prepartum period (in cows with a BCS >3.2 at study commencement; scale 1 to 5) resulted in greater body tissue mobilization postpartum (Janovick and Drackley, 2010), and decreased prepartum neutrophil phagocytosis (Graugnard et al, 2012), compared with those offered lower energy rations. Similarly, increasing energy allowance during the last few weeks prepartum (in cows with a mean BCS of 3.2 to 3.5 at study commencement; scale 1 to 5) resulted in a greater degree of negative EB postpartum (Hayirli et al, 2011), higher incidence of subclinical ketosis postpartum (Vickers et al, 2013), and higher serum NEFA concentrations postpartum (Zhang et al, 2015). Thus, when an increased energy allowance is offered to prepartum cows that already are in high BCS, or when this increased energy allowance results in a high BCS, detrimental consequences may ensue.…”

A Case Study of Bear Reintroduction in Pakistan: Art and Politics in Conservation

“…In pre-calving period, the increased TDMI and CDMI with increasing concentrate supply from Low to High treatment was in agreement with the findings of previous studies (Galic. 2017;Zhang et al, 2015). The increasing nutrient density of the diet with the increasing ratio of concentrate from Low to High resulted in increased TDMI (Singh et al, 2003).…”