Effects of rumen undegradable protein supplementation on productive performance and indicators of protein and energy metabolism in Holstein fresh cows

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of feeding increased dietary crude protein (CP) on productive performance and indicators of protein and energy metabolism during 21 d postpartum. Thirty multiparous Holstein dairy cows were balanced by previous lactation milk yield, body condition score (BCS) at calving, and parity and randomly allocated to 1 of 3 dietary treatments from calving until 21 d postpartum. Dietary treatments were 16.0% CP with 5.0% rumen undegradable protein (RUP) based on dry matter (DM) (16CP), 18.7% CP with 7.0% RUP based on DM (19CP), and 21.4% CP with 9.0% RUP based on DM (21CP). Diets were similar in net energy for lactation (approximately 1.7 Mcal/kg of DM) and CP levels were increased with corn gluten meal and fish meal. Dry matter intake (DMI) was increased by increasing dietary CP levels from 16.0 to 19.0% of DM, but dietary CP beyond 19.0% had no effect on DMI. Milk yields were 4.7 and 6.5 kg/d greater in cows fed the 19CP and 21CP diets versus those fed the 16CP diet, whereas 4% fat-corrected milk was greater for cows fed the 21CP than the 16CP diet (36.0 vs. 31.4 kg/d). Milk protein content and yield, lactose yield, and milk urea nitrogen were elevated by increased dietary CP. Milk lactose content and fat yield were not different among dietary treatments, but milk fat content tended to decline with increasing content of CP in diets. High CP levels increased milk N secretion but decreased milk N efficiency. Apparent digestibility of DM, CP, and neutral detergent fiber was greater on the 19CP and 21CP diets compared with the 16CP diet. Cows fed the 19CP and 21CP diets lost less body condition relative to those fed the 16CP diet over 21 d postpartum. Feeding higher CP levels increased the concentrations of serum albumin, albumin to globulin ratio, and urea nitrogen and decreased aspartate aminotransferase, nonesterified fatty acids, and β-hydroxybutyrate, but had no effect on globulin, glucose, cholesterol, or triacylglycerol. These findings indicated that elevating dietary CP up to 19.0% of DM using RUP supplements improved DMI, productive performance and the indicators of protein and energy metabolism from calving to 21 d postpartum.

Health status and productivity of sheep fed coffee pulp during fattening

“…Multiple metabolic factors are involved in the synthesis of urea. Therefore, one possible assumption is that the percentage of protein in the diets was above the sheep's requirements because cows given a diet with a high protein have a higher urea concentration (Amanlou et al 2017).…”

Interactions of protein levels fed to Holstein cows pre- and postpartum on productive and metabolic responses

“…Most studies evaluating additional protein effects prepartum found no effect (Huyler et al, 1999;Vandehaar et al, 1999;Park et al, 2002) or even a reduction (Greenfield et al, 2000;Hartwell et al, 2000) in postpartum DMI. In contrast, others reported that feeding additional protein to cows in immediate postpartum (Amanlou et al, 2017), early (Law et al, 2009), mid (Cabrita et al, 2011;Giallongo et al, 2016), and late (Barros et al, 2017) lactation increased DMI. To our knowledge, no study has examined the interaction between pre-and postpartum CP levels.…”

“…Serum concentrations of fatty acids (colorimetric method), and BHB (enzymatic method; based on 3-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase) were measured by using Randox Kits (Randox Laboratories Ltd., Crumlin, UK), using a serum spectrophotometer (UNICCO, 2100, Zistchemi Co., Tehran, Iran). All serum metabolites were analyzed according to references from Amanlou et al (2016Amanlou et al ( , 2017.…”

“…Larsen et al (2014) found that additional MP supply using abomasal casein infusion increased milk production and milk protein yield from 1 to 29 DIM. Likewise, Amanlou et al (2017) reported that elevating dietary CP from 16 to 19% of DM using RUP supplements increased DMI and milk yield and improved metabolic status of cows from 1 to 21 DIM. However, Carder and Weiss (2017) did not observe any positive effects on DMI and milk yield when dietary CP levels increased from 16.5 to 18.5% of DM in the first 3 wk of lactation.…”

“…Many studies evaluating the effects of additional protein supply in the postpartum period on performance and metabolism of dairy cows have been conducted at >21 DIM (Lee et al, 2015;Giallongo et al, 2016;Barros et al, 2017). A few studies (Larsen et al, 2014;Amanlou et al, 2017;Carder and Weiss, 2017) have focused on increased protein supply in immediate postpartum cows. Larsen et al (2014) found that additional MP supply using abomasal casein infusion increased milk production and milk protein yield from 1 to 29 DIM.…”