Use of By-products in Growing Dairy Heifer Diets

The goals of a heifer-feeding program are to reach a target freshening weight by 24 months of age or less, to improve feed efficiency and reduce costs, and to do this while allowing the animals to express their full genetic potential for milk production. Feed costs remain the single largest expense in raising dairy heifers; therefore, a feed cost reduction that does not sacrifice production improves net income. Feed costs may be reduced by the use of locally available by-product feeds. Nutritional composition of by-product feeds, however, may vary from the animal’s nutritional requirements, making the incorporation of such feeds into the diets challenging

Ensiling Wet Distillers Grains with Other Feeds

During the last century, livestock producers have relied heavily on highly valued crops to feed their cattle. Corn grain and silage, alfalfa hay and silage as well as other highly productive crops have been used extensively. Changes in oil prices have sparked interest into renewable energy alternatives. Ethanol production from corn has gained popularity in the Midwest resulting in increased availability of corn distillers grains. Corn distillers grains are an excellent feed for ruminants. They can usually be purchased as wet (40-70% moisture) or dry. They supply approximately 10% more energy than corn grain, and approximately 30% protein, 10% fat and 1% phosphorus. These are highly priced nutrients and thus desirable in a feed, although they might pose a challenge when formulating diets. When distillers grains are fed with other feeds that also supply these nutrients, dietary excesses of nitrogen and phosphorus may result in increased nutrient excretion and thus environmental concerns. Therefore, it is recommended that distillers grains be used to supplement feeds with a complementary nutrient profile such as low protein, energy, fat, and phosphorus

Distillers Grains for Dairy Cattle

Feeding distillers grains is nothing new; such products have been fed to cattle for more than a century. What is new, however, are the many ethanol plants now in the upper Midwest and the increased interest in feeding their co-product, distillers grains. This report is an overview of the nutritional value of distillers grains and gives some guidelines for feeding

Uso de subproductos en las dietas de crecimiento de becerras lecheras

Los objetivos de un programa de alimentación de becerras lecheras son alcanzar un determinado peso al parto a los 24 meses de edad o menos, mejorar la eficiencia alimenticia y reducir los costos y lograr ambos al tiempo que se permite que el animal exprese su máximo potencial genético para la producción lechera. Los costos de alimentación siguen siendo los mayores en la crianza de las becerras; por lo tanto, una reducción en los costos del alimento que no sacrifica la producción mejora el ingreso neto. Los costos de alimentación pueden reducirse por medio del uso de subproductos disponibles localmente. La composición nutricional de estos subproductos, sin embargo, puede diferir de los requerimientos nutricionales del animal haciendo que su inclusión en las dietas sea un desafío

Detailed dimethylacetal and fatty acid composition of rumen content from lambs fed lucerne or concentrate supplemented with soybean oil

Articles in International JournalsLipid metabolism in the rumen is responsible for the complex fatty acid profile of rumen outflow compared with the dietary fatty acid composition, contributing to the lipid profile of ruminant products. A method for the detailed dimethylacetal and fatty acid analysis of rumen contents was developed and applied to rumen content collected from lambs fed lucerne or concentrate based diets supplemented with soybean oil. The methodological approach developed consisted on a basic/ acid direct transesterification followed by thin-layer chromatography to isolate fatty acid methyl esters from dimethylacetal, oxo- fatty acid and fatty acid dimethylesters. The dimethylacetal composition was quite similar to the fatty acid composition, presenting even-, odd- and branched-chain structures. Total and individual odd- and branched-chain dimethylacetals were mostly affected by basal diet. The presence of 18:1 dimethylacetals indicates that biohydrogenation intermediates might be incorporated in structural microbial lipids. Moreover, medium-chain fatty acid dimethylesters were identified for the first time in the rumen content despite their concentration being relatively low. The fatty acids containing 18 carbon-chain lengths comprise the majority of the fatty acids present in the rumen content, most of them being biohydrogenation intermediates of 18:2n26 and 18:3n23. Additionally, three oxo- fatty acids were identified in rumen samples, and 16-O-18:0 might be produced during biohydrogenation of the 18:3n23