Using plant-based products to improve ruminants’ performance

There is a significant economic advantage to monitor feed efficiency. It allows farmers to regularly adjust the nutrition of the herd in order to maximize income from milk production regarding feed price of the moment. The use of single or blend of phytogenics can be part of the global approach to increase feed efficiency.

Isabelle Coudray
Product Manager
miXscience

In dairy farming, performance can be expressed by Energy Corrected Milk (ECM), which takes into account milk yield, but also protein and fat contents. ECM is an accurate herd indicator reflecting diet valorization and herd’s productivity.

Economic performance is key to control farm rentability taking into account that milk prices are still volatile in different markets and tend to decrease, whereas raw materials prices globally increase.

RUMEN FLORA MODULATION IS ONE OF THE LEVERS TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE
Dietary proteins are more or less degraded by ruminal flora to produce microbial proteins and ammonia. Microbial proteins and certain dietary proteins not degraded in the rumen are then digested in the intestine to produce milk. Protein supply in the feed and protein degradation level in the rumen need to be adjusted in order to provide sufficient essential amino acids supply for absorption in the gut to maximize performance and limit ammonia production.
Research has demonstrated that usually less than 30% of protein intake can be retrieved in milk protein content form.

Up to 80% of energy supply to ruminants comes from volatile fatty acids. Rumen fermentations produce mainly acetic, butyric, lactic and propionic acids. Levels and ratio of each volatile fatty acids for optimum rumen efficiency have been determined after years of research and constitute nutrition standards. Due to high level of concentrates in modern dairy farming, rumen functioning can be disturbed and this can lead to misbalanced ratios of volatile fatty acids. Increase of concentrates intake has been shown to increase acetic and lactic acids production and to decrease ruminal pH. At short term this strategy can in fact lead to more volatile fatty acids production from important and rapid starch degradation of concentrates. But constant drops in ruminal pH cause non-ideal condition for cellulolytic flora development. This leads to the decrease of fiber digestibility, whereas it accounts for a consequent amount of ruminants’ diets.

Both protein and energy valorization are important and furthermore, correlated. Indeed, microbial synthesis of protein is energy dependent, and research has shown that “synchronizing” the timing of energy supply with protein degradation may maximize protein synthesis and minimize nitrogen waste into ammonia.

HOW PHYTOGENICS CAN IMPROVE ENERGY AND PROTEIN USE IN THE RUMEN?
Phytogenics are added to the overall diet and can affect protein and energy from all the different feed components (forages, cereals, meals, etc.). There are numerous types of phytogenics and some of the most effective ones for feed efficiency are:
Tannins: Complex polyphenol compounds of plants. They can vary a lot in types and concentration from extraction. Their nature allows binding with protein, notably, but the quantity and the quality of the extract is very important to ensure adequate binding in the rumen and liberation in the gut.
Essential oils: There are various families with different mode of actions. In the literature, these compounds have shown antimicrobial activities used to modify ruminal fermentations of protein and energy, to secure digestion and improve, and to improve nutrient digestibility and increase productivity.
Spices: Spices have shown to increase dairy cows’ intake in different trials, and have been linked to increase of natural buffer from salivation positively affecting ruminal pH.

MiXscience has developed a specific range of products including different combination of these components. These products have been developed and tested in the Mixscience Research Center (MRC, Saint-Symphorien, France) in order to increase protein and energy efficiency of ruminants.

In studies, high doses of essential oils have been associated with detrimental effect on rumen microorganisms but doses and effects were varying. One of these products, Valopro NRJ, has been recently tested at MRC with higher dosage to assess cows’ response:
• 30 lactating Holstein dairy cows (60% primiparous cows; 184 ± 64 days in milk (DIM); 35.6 ± 6.8 kg of milk/day; 723 ± 67 kg body weight)
• Herd diet: 16.2% protein, 34.8% NDF, 1.65 MCal/kg
• Cows blocked by lactation number, DIM, milk yield, protein and fat contents
• Two groups: Herd diet (42 days) with 0 g/cow/d (control group) or 30 g/cow/d of Valopro NRJ group.
• Individual milk yield and composition (protein, fat, urea, SCC) monitored daily and weekly respectively
• Individual intake and body weight assessed every day

Milk production was more stable for cows fed with Valopro NRJ during the trial so persistancy is improved with Valopro NRJ.

At the end of the trial, milk composition was similar between the two groups (+1.7 g protein/kg and +1.8 g protein/kg for Valopro NRJ and Control groups respectively and +1.1 g fat/kg for both Valopro NRJ and Control groups) so that energy corrected milk was improved. There was no difference between groups for milk urea, intake and body weight.

Figure 1. Energy Corrected Milk evolution during the trial (kg/cow/d

CONCLUSION
Results indicates that 30 g/cow/d of Valopro NRJ can significantly improve milk yield and ECM and is a suitable solution to increase profitability in dairy cows system.

There is a significant economic advantage to monitor feed efficiency. It allows farmers to regularly adjust the nutrition of the herd in order to maximize income from milk production regarding feed price of the moment. The use of single or blend of phytogenics can be part of the global approach to increase feed efficiency. The implementation of this kind of products can be performed in two different ways: in top feeding or in diet optimization, to increase performance or decrease the feed cost of diets without degrading animal performance. A lower diet cost thanks to optimization is very interesting especially in contexts of low milk prices and high raw materials cost.

Diet optimization with Valopro solutions also makes it possible to limit the environmental impact of the feed or diet by selecting more local raw materials or by-products with a lower environmental impact.

miXscience has developed the MatriCiel tool to calculate the environmental impact of feed according to various criteria, including a Climate Change Impact Criterion in CO2 equivalent. These calculations depend on the context (area and period).

References are available upon request. Product not available in all countries, local regulations should be consulted. Intended only for the export outside the European Union.