The effects of energy concentration in roughage and allowance of concentrates on performance, health and energy efficiency of pluriparous dairy cows during early lactation

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of different energy supplies from roughage and concentrates on performance, health and energy efficiency during early lactation. For this purpose an experiment was conducted containing 64 pluriparous German Holstein cows from 3 weeks prepartum until 16 weeks postpartum. During dry period all cows received an equal dry cow ration. After calving, cows were assigned in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement to one of four groups, receiving either a moderate (MR, 6.0 MJ NE) or a high (HR, 6.4 MJ NE) energy concentration in roughage and furthermore moderate (MC, 150 g/kg energy-corrected milk (ECM)) or high amounts of concentrates (HC, 250 g/kg ECM) on dry matter (DM) basis, which were allocated from an automatic feeding system. Higher allocation of concentrates resulted in an increase of DM intake at expense of roughage intake. HC cows had a higher milk yield than MC cows, whereas ECM was higher in HR cows due to a decrease of milk fat yield in MR groups. Energy balance and body condition score were elevated in HC cows, but no differences occurred in development of subclinical ketosis. Furthermore, energy efficiency variables were lower in HC groups because the greater energy intake was not associated with a considerable elevation of milk yield. Consistency of faeces did not indicate digestive disorders in any of the treatment groups although the faecal manure score was significantly lower in HR groups. Our results underline the importance of a high energy uptake from roughage, which can contribute to an adequate performance and beneficial efficiency, especially at lower amounts of concentrates in ration. Feeding concentrates on an average amount of 9.4 kg/d compared to 6.4 kg/d on DM basis improved the energy balance in our trial, but without consequences for metabolic blood variables and general health of the cows.

Effect of Feed Concentrate Intake on the Environmental Impact of Dairy Cows in an Alpine Mountain Region Including Soil Carbon Sequestration and Effect on Biodiversity

“…The differences observed were most probably due to a breed effect (Alpine Grey vs. Brown Swiss). Furthermore, several studies observed an increase in milk production due to an increased amount of concentrated feed [48][49][50]. For both breeds considered in this study, an average increase of about 50% in the quantity of concentrated feed was accompanied by an increase of on average 30% in the milk quantity, as shown in Table 2.…”

Effects of Body Condition and Concentrate Proportion of the Ration on Mobilization of Fat Depots and Energetic Condition in Dairy Cows during Early Lactation Based on Ultrasonic Measurements

“…This result is comparable to other studies. Schmitz et al [26] showed that a high proportion of concentrates in the ration enhanced DMI and Gruber et al [27] proposed an increase between 0.4–0.6 kg per kg additional concentrate, which was linked to a subsequent roughage displacement. In contrast, other findings pointed out that there were no differences in feed intake between cows fed rations with different proportions of concentrates during the lactation period [28].…”

“…Yet other studies, in turn, go in line with our findings and could not determine any significant differences between treatments in the first weeks p.p. [26,36]. This suggests that NEB does not accurately reflect the grade of lipid mobilization.…”

“…Those findings reflect our perceptions concerning SoM, where we could not prove any group differences either. Different studies had already pointed out that cows vary in their potential to deal with metabolic changes and to adapt to NEB and varying dietary energy [26,33,39].…”

An Innovative Concept for a Multivariate Plausibility Assessment of Simultaneously Recorded Data

“…On the one hand, this could be relevant if not only data from early lactation but from the entire lactation are available. Then, typical lactation curves, such as for milk yield, milk ingredients, energy balance or dry matter intake could be taken into account [34,35]. On the other hand, if data are collected from many more animals, more robust models could be set up in which for example interaction effects between herd, parity and DIM could also be considered to adapt the models of each trait individually to the physiological conditions.…”