Nutritional Management of Transition Dairy Cows: Strategies to Optimize Metabolic Health

Abstract

During the transition period, dairy cows undergo large metabolic adaptations in glucose, fatty acid, and mineral metabolism to support lactation and avoid metabolic dysfunction. The practical goal of nutritional management during this timeframe is to support these metabolic adaptations. The National Research Council addressed nutritional management of transition cows for the first time in 2001; however, a substantial amount of research has been reported since this publication was released. Results support 2-group nutritional strategies for dry cows to minimize overfeeding of nutrients during the early dry period but increase nutrient supply to facilitate metabolic adaptation to lactation during the late dry period. Increasing the amount of energy supplied through dietary carbohydrate during the prepartum period results in generally positive effects on metabolism and performance of transition cows. Recent research, however, suggests that the form of that carbohydrate (i.e., starch vs. highly digestible neutral detergent fiber) may be of lesser importance. Attempts to increase energy supply by feeding dietary fat sources or decrease energy expenditure by supplying specific fatty acids such as trans-10, cis-12 conjugated linoleic acid to decrease milk fat output during early lactation do not decrease the release of nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA) from adipose tissue. Although the view that nutritional means have limited ability to enhance hepatic export of NEFA as triglycerides in lipoproteins in ruminants has become dogma, recent evidence suggests that nutrients such as choline or specific fatty acids may enhance this process in transi

Parturition to resumption of ovarian cyclicity: comparative aspects of beef and dairy cows

“…Current evidence suggests that dairy cows should calve down in a BCS of 2.75 to 3.0 and not lose more than 0.5 of a BCS unit between calving and first service (Overton and Waldron 2004;Mulligan et al, 2006) rather than earlier recommendations of 3.0 to 3.5 (Buckley et al, 2003). Cows that lose excessive body condition (⩾1.0 BCS unit) have a longer postpartum interval to first ovulation.…”

High- and low-purity glycerine supplementation to dairy cows in early lactation: effects on silage intake, milk production and metabolism

“…Early lactation is associated with reduced dry matter intake (DMI) and increased nutrient requirements, particularly glucose, to support lactose synthesis in the mammary gland (Overton and Waldron, 2004). Not only in north-western Europe but also in other regions, the rations fed to lactating dairy cows are generally based on grass silage supplemented with concentrates (Khalili et al, 1997).…”

Effect of pre- and post-calving concentrate allocation and of starch source on feed intake, blood metabolite profiles and performance of transition cows

“…Improving NEB can be achieved by an increase in the proportion of nonstructural carbohydrates in the diet either one week before parturition or one week before and after parturition (Vandehaar et al, 1999;Overton and Waldron, 2004;Jurkiewicz et al, 2005). Moreover, prolongation of feeding diets with higher proportions of concentrates up to 6 weeks before parturition decreased nonesterifi ed fatty and β-hydroxybutyric acid and increased glucose concentration in blood and resulted in higher milk yield (Mashek and Beede, 2001;Osięgłowski and Strzetelski, 2006).…”

“…In this period, cows need to cover the nutrient requirements for maintenance, foetus and placenta growth, uterus, colostrogenesis and milk production and for growth in the case of young cows (Vandehaar et al, 1999;Mashek and Beede, 2001;McNamara et al, 2003;Overton and Waldron, 2004). During this time, covering the requirements of cows, mainly energy, depends fi rst of all on dry matter intake.…”