Adjusting for 30-hour undigested neutral detergent fiber in substitution of wheat straw and beet pulp for alfalfa hay and corn silage in the dairy cow diet: Chewing activities, diurnal feed intake, and ruminal fermentation

This experiment investigated the effects of replacing alfalfa hay (AH) and corn silage (CS) with wheat straw (WS) and beet pulp (BP) in diets with similar forage 30-h undigested neutral detergent fiber (uNDF30) on chewing behavior and ruminal fermentation of lactating cows. Twelve multiparous Holstein cows (51 ± 3 kg/d of milk; days in milk = 97 ± 13; mean ± standard error) were housed in individual stalls and used in a replicated 3 × 3 Latin square design with 28-d periods. Experimental diets were (1) 0% forage uNDF30 from WS (WS0, contained 2% BP); (2) 50% forage uNDF30 from WS (WS50, contained 7.6% BP); and (3) 100% forage uNDF30 from WS (WS100, contained 12.4% BP). From 0 to 2 h after the morning feeding, there was a tendency observed for a quadratic effect on dry matter intake (DMI), with cows fed WS50 consuming the greatest amount of DM (9.19 kg). Later DMI (4 to 6 h and 6 to 24 h postfeeding) decreased as dietary proportion of WS and BP increased. Increasing WS and BP decreased eating behavior, but had no detected effect on rumination time (455 min/d), which resulted in a linear reduction in chewing time (the sum of eating and rumination activities). As WS and BP inclusion increased, the number of meals decreased linearly, whereas time between meals, eating rate, and meal size per kilogram of DM increased linearly. Increased dietary inclusion of WS and BP tended to decrease total ruminal VFA and resulted in a linear decrease in propionate but an increase in acetate proportion and ammonia-N concentration in the rumen. Overall, the substitution had no effect on rumination activity, possibly suggesting that a combination of WS and BP could be used in dairy cow rations as substitutes for high-quality forages when WS was added to maintain the uNDF30 level.