Feeding reduced-fat dried distillers grains with solubles to lactating Holstein dairy cows does not alter milk composition or cause late blowing in cheese

Abstract

Feeding dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) to lactating dairy cows has been implicated as a cause of late blowing defects in the production of Swiss-style cheeses. Our objectives were (1) to test the effect of feeding reduced-fat DDGS (RF-DDGS; ∼6% fat) to lactating dairy cows on the composition of milk and on the suitability of the milk for production of baby Swiss cheese and (2) to evaluate the effect of diet on cow lactation performance. Lactating Holstein dairy cows were fed both dietary treatments in a 2 × 2 crossover design. Cows were housed in a 48-cow freestall pen equipped with individual feeding gates to record feed intake. The control diet was a corn, corn silage, and alfalfa hay diet supplemented with mechanically expelled soybean meal. The experimental diet was the same base ration, but 20% (dry matter basis) RF-DDGS were included in place of the expelled soybean meal. The RF-DDGS diet was additionally supplemented with rumen-protected lysine; diets were formulated to be isoenergetic and isonitrogenous. Cows were allowed ad libitum access to feed and water, fed twice daily, and milked 3 times daily. For cheese production, milk was collected and pooled 6 times for each dietary treatment. There was no treatment effect on milk yield (35.66 and 35.39 kg/d), milk fat production (1.27 and 1.25 kg/d), milk fat percentage (3.65 and 3.61%), milk protein production (1.05 and 1.08 kg/d), lactose percentage (4.62 and 4.64%), milk total solids (12.19 and 12.28%), and somatic cell count (232.57 and 287.22 × 10 cells/mL) for control and RF-DDGS, respectively. However, dry matter intake was increased by treatment, which implied a reduction in feed efficiency. Milk protein percentage also increased (3.01 and 3.11%), whereas milk urea nitrogen decreased (14.18 and 12.99 mg/dL), indicating that protein utilization may be more efficient when cows are fed RF-DDGS. No differences in cheese were observed by a trained panel except cheese appearance; control cheese eyes were significantly, but not practically, larger than the RF-DDGS cheese. These results indicate that RF-DDGS can be effectively used in the rations of lactating Holstein cows with no deleterious effects on milk production and composition and metrics of the physiology of the cow (i.e., blood glucose and nonesterified fatty acids); however, feeding RF-DDGS increased dry matter intake, which decreased feed efficiency. Finally, feeding RF-DDGS did not negatively influence quality and suitability of milk for production of baby Swiss cheese.

Feeding wheat dried distillers’ grains with solubles increases conjugated linoleic acid and unsaturated lipids in ovine milk without adversely affecting milk yield

“…Small increases (not always significant) have also been reported in some studies with lactating cows (Janicek et al ., 2008; Chibisa et al ., 2012; Benchaar et al ., 2013) and it has been attributed to either the slightly increased energy density, due to higher fat content in DDGS diets, or to greater DM intake and, therefore, higher energy acquisition by the animals offered DDGS. Nevertheless, most cow studies with isoenergetic and isonitrogenous experimental diets, and similar intakes, as those applied in the present experiment, reported no effect on milk yield, when the applied inclusion level of DDGS was up to 30% DM (Abdelqader et al ., 2009; Gaillard et al ., 2017a, 2017b; Testroet et al ., 2018)…”

Ruminal fermentation, kinetics, and total-tract digestibility of lactating dairy cows fed distillers dried grains with solubles in low- and high-forage diets

“…Schingoethe et al (2009) recommended that DDGS could be incorporated at 20% DM basis in lactating dairy cow diets. More recent research from Testroet et al (2018) showed no differences in performance when feeding a reduced-fat DDGS at 19.5% of diet dry matter. However, there are instances where feeding high-fat DDGS from 20 to 30% on DM basis to lactating dairy cows caused decreased milk fat concentration (Abdelqader et al, 2009;Hippen et al, 2010).…”

Feeding concentrates with different protein sources to high-yielding, mid-lactation Norwegian Red cows: Effect on cheese ripening

“…Sankarlal et al (2015) fed dried distillers grains at 0, 10, and 20% of a TMR diet to mid-lactation Holstein cows and found an increase in long-chain unsaturated fatty acids and a decrease in most medium-chain and all short-chain fatty acids in Baby Swiss cheeses. Testroet et al (2018) compared 2 different isonitrogenous and isoenergetic diets given to Feeding concentrates with different protein sources to high-yielding, mid-lactation Norwegian red cows: Effect on cheese ripening M. A. Olsen, 1 S. G. Vhile, 2 D. Porcellato, 1 A. Kidane, 2 and S. B. Skeie 1 * mid-lactation Holstein cows: a diet containing 13.5% of DM from soybean meal versus 19.5% of DM from reduced-fat dried distillers grains. They found no differences in the suitability of milk for cheese making (Baby Swiss cheese), as the quality of the produced cheeses was similar.…”