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Effect of Alfalfa Ash and Valeric Acids on Growth of Dairy Heifers¹

Depts. of Dairy and Agricultural Chemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing

ABSTRACT

Recent work by the Ohio workers (2, 5) indicates that a combination of rumen factors including valeric acids improved cellulose digestion in the artificial rumen and improved the growth rate of beef cattle in three of four trials. It has been shown that the addition of either alfalfa ash or alfalfa meal to rations containing low-quality roughages will improve the utilization of such rations when fed to beef cattle or sheep (1, 3, 4). It seemed desirable to evaluate these two factors in growing dairy heifer rations.

Twenty-four yearling dairy heifers (15 Holstein and nine Brown Swiss) were divided into three groups and used in a 150-day feeding trial to study the effect of alfalfa ash and the fatty acids, valeric and isovaleric, upon growth. All heifers were fed ground corn cobs free choice once per day as the sole roughage. In addition, Group 1 heifers were fed a 32% protein soybean oil meal grain mix in sufficient quantities to meet the heifers' need for digestible protein (6); Groups 2 and 3 were fed the same grain mix supplemented with either 25.7 g. of alfalfa ash or 1.0 g. of valeric and 0.27 g. of iso-valeric acids per pound of grain mix, respectively.

¹ Published with the approval of the Director of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station as Journal Article No. 2115.