Fat % in the milk is one of the key concern of the dairy farmer. Milk with high fat percentage is liked by the consumers in general. There are a lot of factors including breed, age, lactation number and many more that control the level of fat that is coming in the milk. Our focus will, however, be on the some feeding strategies to increase the milk fat percentage.
What to feed and what not to feed the animals for a better fat %age in the milk? lets have a look.
Underfeeding the cattle increases milk fat percentage. Though it may seem attractive for you, actually it will affect the over all production of milk too, that decreases if the animals are underfed.
If proportion of concentrate is increased in the feed, milk fat %age will decrease. This happens due to disturbance of volatile fatty acids which are required for milk fat synthesis.
Forages, if given in very finely chopped form, will have bad effects on milk fat %age. It leads to milk fat depression syndrome that means a reduction of milk fat below 3%.
Starch rich feeds tend to decrease acetate and increase the propionate. Acetate is required for milk fat synthesis so milk fat %age is decreased.
A farmer might think giving dietary fat will increase the milk fat percentage as well. That is not true always! The thing that matters is the type of fat you are offering in the feed. If PUFA is more in the feed then it will decrease the fat percentage of the milk. However giving protected fat will certainly increase the milk fat %age.
Keep in mind various other factors affection milk fat %age along with feed to get the best results.
We will post a more detailed information on effect of dietary fat on milk fat %age later, keep visiting our blog. Thank you
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