Journal article
Effects of feeding algal meal high in docosahexaenoic acid on feed intake, milk production, and methane emissions in dairy cows
PJ Moate, SRO Williams, MC Hannah, RJ Eckard, MJ Auldist, BE Ribaux, JL Jacobs, WJ Wales
Journal of Dairy Science | ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC | Published : 2013
Abstract
This study examined effects on milk yield and composition, milk fatty acid concentrations and methane (CH4) emissions when dairy cows were offered diets containing different amounts of algal meal. The algal meal contained 20% docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and cows were offered either 0, 125, 250, or 375g/cow per d of algal meal corresponding to 0, 25, 50, or 75g of DHA/cow per d. Thirty-two Holstein cows in mid lactation were allocated to 4 treatment groups, and cows in all groups were individually offered 5.9kg of dry matter (DM) per day of concentrates [683g/kg of cracked wheat (Triticum aestivum), 250g/kg of cold-pressed canola, 46g/kg of granulated dried molasses, and 21g/kg of mineral mix]..
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Funding Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Department of Primary Industries-Victoria, Dairy Australia (Southbank, VIC, Australia), Meat and Livestock Australia (North Sydney, NSW, Australia), the Gardiner Foundation (Melbourne, VIC, Australia), and the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Canberra, Australia) under its Australia's Farming Future Climate Change Research Program. This work would not have been possible without the technical work of Anthony Hookey, Serge Ziero, Di Mapleson, and other staff at Department of Primary Industries-Victoria, Ellinbank Centre. We thank Matthew Kerr, Department of Primary Industries-Victoria, Werribee Centre (Werribee, VIC, Australia) for analysis of the feed and milk fatty acids.