Milk Production Responses and Digestibility of Dairy Buffaloes (<i>Bubalus bubalis</i>) Partially Supplemented with Forage Rape (<i>Brassica napus</i>) Silage Replacing Corn Silage
2021
Di Zhou | Mohamed Abdelrahman | Xinxin Zhang | Shuai Yang | Jing Yuan | Zhigao An | Kaifeng Niu | Yanxia Gao | Jianguo Li | Bo Wang | Guangsheng Zhou | Liguo Yang | Guohua Hua
Worldwide, silage is considered the main component in dairy animal diets; however, this portion is mainly dominated by corn silage, which raises availability challenges in some agricultural production systems. The present study evaluated a partial replacement of corn silage with forage rape silage (FRS) and its effect on feed intake, nutrient digestibility, rumen fermentation, milk production, and blood metabolites in buffalo. Thirty-six lactating buffaloes were randomly assigned to four different groups, according to supplementation of FRS (only corn silage, FRS<sub>0</sub>) or with 15% (FRS<sub>15</sub>), 25% (FRS<sub>25</sub>), and 35% (FRS<sub>35</sub>) of forage rape silage instead of corn silage. The results showed that, compared to corn silage, forage rape silage has a lower carbohydrate but a higher protein concentration. The buffalo intake of dry matter and organic matter were improved linearly with the FRS increasing in the diet. The apparent total-tract digestibility (ATTD) of dry matter, organic matter, nitrogen, neutral detergent fiber, and acid detergent fiber also increased by the FRS supplementation compared with FRS<sub>0</sub>. Conversely, FRS supplementation decreased the propionic, butyric, and valeric acid contents and increased the acetic:propionic ratio and microbial protein content. Furthermore, FRS inclusion led to a significantly higher milk urea and non-fat milk solid content, higher blood glucose, total globulins, blood urea nitrogen, and lower blood high-density lipoprotein. These results suggested that FRS has high a nutritional value and digestibility, is a good feed resource, and showed favorable effects when supplemented with dairy buffalo ration.
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