Silages containing buckwheat and chicory: quality, digestibility and nitrogen utilisation by lactating cows

Abstract

The suitability of silages containing buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) and chicory (Cichorium intybus) for the nutrition of dairy cows was determined. Buckwheat and chicory were sown in mixture with ryegrass (Lolium multilorum), and a pure ryegrass culture served as a control forage. Swards were harvested 55 d after sowing and were ensiled after wilting, without additives in small round bales. Finally, buckwheat and chicory made up the dietary dry matter (DM) proportions of 0.46 and 0.34, respectively. Concentrates were restricted to 2 kg/d. Diets were fed to 3 x 6 late-lactating cows for 15 d at ad libitum access. During the collection period (days 10-15) amounts of feed intake and faeces, urine and milk were recorded and samples were taken. Ensilability was good for buckwheat and ryegrass swards, but was so less for the chicory sward, which was rich in total ash. The buckwheat silage was rich in acid detergent fibre (445 g/kg DM) and lignin (75.7 g/kg DM) and contained less crude protein (135 g/kg DM) and ether extract (15.8 g/kg DM) than the other silages. Consistent with that, the apparent digestibility of the organic matter and fibre were lowest when feeding this silage. The potassium concentrations in the chicory and ryegrass silages were high (61 g/ kg) and lower in buckwheat (47 g/kg). No significant treatment effects on intake, body weight, milk yield or milk composition as well as plasma beta-hydroxybutyrate and non-esterified fatty acids occurred. Being lowest in nitrogen (N) content, the buckwheat silage resulted in the lowest urine N losses and the most efficient N utilisation for milk protein synthesis, but this at cost of body N retention. The results show that silages containing buckwheat and chicory may be used as components of the forage part of dairy cows' diets even though they were found to have a lower feeding value than ryegrass silage.

Influence of different morphological parts of buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) and its major secondary metabolite rutin on rumen fermentation in vitro

“…A significant effect of the treatment with 50 g rutin trihydrate/kg gives reason to assume that in this respect it was namely rutin that exhibited such an activity. It has been shown that the N-efficiency (milk N in relation to excreta N) of buckwheat silage in dairy cows is quite high compared to that of cows receiving ryegrass silage (Kälber et al, 2012). This could have been caused by the apparent proteinprotecting property of rutin, deduced from the results of the present study.…”

“…However, it has recently been shown that different forms of buckwheat (grain, fresh herb or ensiled herb) are suitable as parts of the diet for poultry (Leiber et al, 2009) and for ruminants (Amelchanka et al, 2010;Kälber et al, 2011). The fresh buckwheat herb was found to promote the transfer of α-linolenic acid from feed to milk when fed to dairy cows (Kälber et al, 2011(Kälber et al, , 2012. This has been assumed to result from a lower level of ruminal biohydrogenation of this fatty acid.…”

Performance and milk composition of dairy goats as affected by the dietary level of stoned olive cake silages

“…Both systems produce a similar amount of OC on a dry matter (DM) basis but two-phase OC has approximately 4 to 5 and 2 to 3 fold higher sugar and total phenolic (TP) compounds, respectively [8], since two-phase system does not produce vegetation water during the oil extraction that three-phase system produces. Elevated TP in dairy milk, associated with the intake of feed sources that are rich in TP were reported by Kuhnen et al [9] and Kälber et al [10]. These studies suggest that feeding dairy animals with feed sources rich in TP has a potential to increase milk TP depending on the nature of TP.…”

“…The increase in TP was reported by Kuhnen et al [9] in milk of cows that were fed pasture rich in TP. Similarly, Kälber et al [10] reported an increased TP in cow milk that was obtained from animals that consumed diets containing chicory and buckwheat. This was similar to the TP content of OCS used in the present experiment.…”

Resigning protein concentrates in dairy cattle nutrition: a problem or a chance?

“…It can be assumed that under the specific conditions of the cited research work, the cows reused a large share of their blood urea via the rumino-hepatic circle (Van Soest, 1994). This implies an efficient use of nitrogen, meaning lower dietary demands and lower excretion via urine into the environment, and at the same time higher partitioning of feed protein into milk (Kälber et al, 2012). Further, the rumino-hepatic cycle leads to a lower metabolic pressure for detoxification of rumen-derived ammonia, which would improve the health status of the cows.…”