Milk traits of lactating cows submitted to feed restriction

Abstract

Data from five experiments with dairy cows where feed was restricted to 0, 40, and 50% of the ad libitum amount, with 259 observations, were subjected to multivariate analyses to determine the effects of severity and duration of feed restriction on production, physical-chemical characteristics, ethanol stability, and somatic cell score of milk. A negative relationship was seen between the severity and duration of feed restriction with milk production, lactose content, titratable acidity, and milk stability to the ethanol test. The milk stability to the ethanol test, protein content, milk yield, and somatic cells score were the most important attributes retained by the discriminant analysis. Milk stability to the ethanol test, live weight, days in restriction, and pH were the most important characteristics explaining the variance within the different levels of feed restriction. Milk production and ethanol stability were significantly lower in both levels of feed restriction compared with the group fed ad libitum. When feed restriction was followed by refeeding, the difference observed in ethanol stability was the first discriminant variable, followed by the difference in unstable milk frequency and titratable acidity. Increments in the severity and duration of feed restriction negatively affect milk production and milk ethanol stability.

Seasonal variation, method of determination of bovine milk stability, and its relation with physical, chemical, and sanitary characteristics of raw milk

“…Differences in lactose and protein contents between milk with high stability and unstable milk are partially due to inadequate supply of nutrients, feeding of low-quality forages, metabolic or ruminal disturbances, and poor hygienic-sanitary characteristics of milk (Zanela et al, 2006;Barchiesi-Ferrrari et al, 2007;Marques et al, 2010a;Fagnani et al, 2014;Gabbi et al, 2016;Werncke et al, 2016).…”

Impacts of Macronutrients on Gene Expression: Recent Evidence to Understand Productive and Reproductive Performance of Livestock

“…Several of milk traits (milk production, acidity, milk stability etc.) have been found to be negatively correlated with feed restriction in dairy cows (Gabbi et al, 2015). Lactating animals may seek to minimize the effect of nutrient restriction by adopting several adaptation strategies including increased mobilization of body reserved and decreased milk production.…”

“…Although having an association with bronchiolitis (Sawahata et al, 2010) and cytotoxic activity (Yunita et al, 2013), Sauropus androgynus is traditionally consumed by several Southeast Asian countries and is believed to be an enhancer of milk production during lactation (Bunawan et al, 2015). When feeding S. androgynus leaf extract to lactating mice, it enhanced the expression of two prominent genes (prolactin and oxytocin) regulating milk production and subsequently, increased milk production (Soka et al, 2010) suggesting their potential use to increase milk production in livestock ruminants (Gabbi et al, 2015).…”

Feed restriction of F1 Holstein × Zebu cows in the final third of lactation modifies intake, nutrient digestibility, feeding behavior, and performance

“…The competitiveness of dairy products produced in Brazil with other commodities produced in the internal and/or external market is attributed, in part, to the use of forage plants as a source of nutrients for animals, which presents lower production costs in relation to concentrated inputs. However, forage production is not constant throughout the year in the country (Gabbi et al, 2016), especially in the semi-arid regions, which can impair the performance of animals.…”

“…of body tissues for maintenance, as well as present direct reactions in the productive and reproductive activities of the animal (Schütz et al, 2013), which leads to metabolic and adaptive changes in the body (Gabbi et al, 2016). Burke et al (2010) reported that, depending on the severity and time of feed restriction in lactating cows, there may be a reduction in milk production and, consequently, in the percentage of fat and protein and an increase in the somatic cell count (Fruscalso et al, 2013).…”