Rumen Health The rumen plays an essential role in the bovine digestive process
Why is the health of the Rumen important? The rumen plays an essential role in the bovine digestive process. Two things are vital to good rumen function; a healthy microbial population and a suitable pH (ideally above pH 6.5). Without these, the rumen becomes less efficient at the digestion of feed. This leaves the animal susceptible to health complications, lowers feed efficiency and will negatively impact animal performance.
Why use Rumen enhancers? Rumen enhancers increase the rumen’s efficiency by creating an environment that allows for the complete digestion of ration feedstuffs, resulting in an increase in the absorption of nutrients. Buffers help to reduce the rumen acidity that commonly results from feeding diets designed for high milk production. They can increase dry matter intake, rumen microbial, protein production, and fibre digestion, resulting in an increase in milk production and milkfat production. The risk of acidosis is not only a problem for high yielding cows which are fed high in starch, sugar and concentrates. It’s a common risk for all ruminant animals. Pasture-fed dairy cows are at the same risk of acidosis from high concentrations of rapidly fermentable carbohydrate.
Take care to watch for rumen problems, especially at the start of the grazing season when there is highly fermentable grass with less effective fibre in the diet. Common signs of rumen function problems • Reduced milk composition • Butterfat depression • Reduced fibre digestion • Inflammation • Reduced milk yield • Changes in manure • Less dry matter intake
The result of these impacts are: Lower milk yield and milk solids
18 | Moist Feed and Forage Specialists
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