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Loss of Fat from Dairy Cows¹

Animal Sciences Department, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506

ABSTRACT

Several changes in the management of our modern dairy farm have increased the interest of both researchers and dairymen in the role that body energy stores perform on the productivity and function of dairy cows. Dairy Herd Improvement Association summaries show that dairy cows are fed more grain now than they were fed 10 years ago. Increased usage of complete rations and group feeding with more grain generally results in higher energy intakes and an accumulation of body fat.

Limitation on milk production for many dairy cows is their ability to consume nutrients, especially energy. Therefore, the combination of energy from body fat and feed should enable the cow to reach a higher peak of milk production during the early stage of lactation when nutrient requirements are at the highest. Voluntary feed intake generally increases during the first 8 to 12 weeks of the lactation. The extent of the role that fat and other control mechanisms play on voluntary feed intake during these first critical weeks of lactation is not clearly understood.

¹ Presented at the Sixty-fifth Annual Meeting of the American Dairy Science Association, The University of Florida, Gainesville, June 1970.