ARS | Publication request: CARBOHYDRATE NUTRITION AND MANURE SCORING. PART I: CARBOHYDRATES

Submitted to: Symposium Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: April 13, 2007
Publication Date: May 15, 2007
Citation: Hall, M. 2007. Carbohydrate nutrition and manure scoring. Part I: Carbohydrates. In: Proceedings of the Minnesota Dairy Health Conference, May 15, 2007, St. Paul, Minnesota. p. 69-79.

Technical Abstract: There are elements of ration formulation for which we have no hard and fast rules. Carbohydrate supplementation is one of them. The 2001 Dairy NRC has done the best job to date in offering guidelines regarding the balance between forage & neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and nonfiber carbohydrates (NFC) such as sugars, starch, and pectins. However, there are a variety of factors that affect what modifications to apply to these guidelines to achieve top production and animal health. The carbohydrates individually, and in their interactions with other carbohydrates, protein and physical form of the diet can affect lactation performance and animal health. To have the best sense of what adjustments to make to the NRC carbohydrate recommendations, one needs a sense of how the different carbohydrates function in rations, knowledge of the factors that can affect how the cow performs, and evaluation of the cows consuming the diets to assess the animal x diet interaction.