Feeding of wheat bran and sugar beet pulp as sole supplements in high-forage diets emphasizes the potential of dairy cattle for human food supply

Abstract

Besides the widely discussed negative environmental effects of dairy production, such as greenhouse gas emissions, the feeding of large amounts of potentially human-edible feedstuffs to dairy cows is another important sustainability concern. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the effects of a complete substitution of common cereal grains and pulses with a mixture of wheat bran and sugar beet pulp in a high-forage diet on cow performance, production efficiency, feed intake, and ruminating behavior, as well as on net food production potential. Thirteen multiparous and 7 primiparous mid-lactation Holstein dairy cows were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 treatments in a change-over design with 7-wk periods. Cows were fed a high-forage diet (grass silage and hay accounted for 75% of the dry matter intake), supplemented with either a cereal grain-based concentrate mixture (CON), or a mixture of wheat bran and dried sugar beet pulp (WBBP). Human-edible inputs were calculated for 2 different scenarios based on minimum and maximum potential recovery rates of human-edible energy and protein from the respective feedstuffs. Dietary starch and neutral detergent fiber contents were 3.0 and 44.1% for WBBP, compared with 10.8 and 38.2% in CON, respectively. Dietary treatment did not affect milk production, milk composition, feed intake, or total chewing activity. However, chewing index expressed in minutes per kilogram of neutral detergent fiber ingested was 12% lower in WBBP compared with CON. In comparison to CON, the human-edible feed conversion efficiencies for energy and protein, defined as human-edible output per human-edible input, were 6.8 and 5.3 times higher, respectively, in WBBP under the maximum scenario. For the maximum scenario, the daily net food production (human-edible output minus human-edible input) increased from 5.4 MJ and 250 g of crude protein per cow in CON to 61.5 MJ and 630 g of crude protein in the WBBP diet. In conclusion, our data suggest that in forage-based dairy production systems, wheat bran and sugar beet pulp could replace common cereal grains in mid-lactation dairy cows without impairing performance, while strongly increasing human-edible feed conversion efficiency and net food production index.

Effect of grain- or by-product-based concentrate fed with early- or late-harvested first-cut grass silage on dairy cow performance

“…Demand to increase food production and to secure national food supply is growing (FAO, 2011;Eisler et al, 2014). Feeding agro-industrial by-products has recently been suggested as an efficient option to improve sustainability in terms of human-edible output, calculated as animal products minus potentially human-edible input of feedstuffs, in dairy production systems (Ertl et al, 2015b(Ertl et al, , 2016.…”

“…Previous research has mainly focused on replacing single feed ingredients with agro-industrial by-products in diets to dairy cows. Apart from replacing pulses, an objective has often been to investigate and develop lower starch feeding strategies, to improve farm profitability and animal health in dairy production (e.g., Voelker and Allen, 2003;Dann et al, 2014;Ertl et al, 2016). Wheat bran and sugar beet pulp (SBP) are the most widely used nonforage fiber sources (NFFS) derived from agro-industries in Swedish ruminant production systems (Swedish Board of Agriculture, 2014).…”

Substitution of corn silage with shredded beet pulp affects sorting behaviour and chewing activity of dairy cows

“…Our previous study indicated that CS could be replaced with SBP up to 12% of dietary DM in the diets without adverse effects on the productivity of mid-lactating dairy cows during the summer (Naderi et al, 2016). Although there is evidence that BP could replace common cereal grains or CS in mid-lactation dairy cows without impairing performance (Ertl, Zebeli, Zollitsch, & Knaus, 2016;Voelker & Allen, 2003a), limited information is available on changes in feeding behaviour patterns as indicators of health.…”

Land Use for Edible Protein of Animal Origin—A Review

“…Ruminants are, therefore, able to produce edible protein of animal origin (milk and meat) from permanent meadows and pastures. They are enabling a net output of human edible protein and may contribute to meeting the human needs for food of animal origin (e.g., [83,84,85]). Kratli et al [86] pointed out that pastoralists are more efficient at producing food per unit area of dryland than other forms of agricultural land use under the same conditions.…”

“…They can be used as valuable sources of protein, minerals, and other nutrients depending on the source material and the chemical or physical processing, without causing any LF. In the future, more grain will be used for food and fuel and more co-products could be available for animal nutrition [21,85,97] or other purposes. Additional details about the nutritive value and utilization of co-products from the biofuel industry in animal nutrition were recently compiled by the FAO [95].…”