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Effects of Dietary Amino Acid Balance on the Response of Dairy Cows to an Increase of Milking Frequency from Twice to Three Times Daily

Hannah Research Institute, Ayr, KA6 5HL, UK

Corresponding author: D. G. Chamberlain; e-mail: chamberlaind{at}hri.sari.ac.uk.

An experiment was conducted to examine how the response of dairy cows to a change from twice to three times-daily milking is affected by deficiencies in the dietary supplies of three amino acids, His, Met, and Lys. Six cows were used in a 6 x 6 Latin square with 14-d periods. The three dietary treatments were: grass silage and a cereal-based supplement containing feather meal as the sole protein supplement; the same silage-cereal diet supplying similar amounts of metabolizable and rumen-undegradable protein but with additional amounts of His, Met, and Lys in the form of fish meal; and the fish meal diet with additional metabolizable energy in the form of an additional 2 kg/d of sugar beet pulp. Within each of these dietary treatments, the cows were milked twice and three times daily, making a total of six treatments. When cows were given the feather meal diet, even though dietary metabolizable energy was in considerable excess, a deficiency of specific amino acids prevented any increase in milk yield in response to increasing the frequency of milking from twice to three times daily. In contrast, when cows consumed a similar level of excess metabolizable energy and a similar level of rumen-undegradable protein for which the protein was of better amino acid balance (fish meal), the increased frequency of milking led to increased yield of milk and milk protein.

Key Words: dairy cow • amino acid • 3x-daily milking • milk yield

Abbreviation key: 2x = twice-daily milking, 3x = three times-daily milking, ME = metabolizable energy