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1317
Effect of supplemental enriched palmitic acid in free fatty acid form vs calcium salts of palm fatty acids on production performance in early postpartum cows
Sixty multiparous cows were randomly assigned at calving to one of three treatment regimens to evaluate fat supplementation on production performance in postpartum dairy cattle. Cows entered the pens at calving and remained through 12 wk. postpartum. There were 4 cows/pen and 5 pens/trt . Pens were identical in layout. Treatments were Control (no supplemental fat), Control diet with supplemental calcium salts of fatty acids (MegaLac, Princeton, NJ,: ML) and Control diet with high palmitic acid (98%) fatty acids (PrimaFat 16, Centriq, Seattle, WA,: PF). Cows were fed a Fresh (1-21d) and High (22-84d) diet. Corn meal was removed from the Control diet to provide equal supplemental fat content in both Fresh and High diets among treatments (Fresh:1.95 and 1.55% of DM and High: 1.78 and 1.46% of DM for ML and PF, respectively). Daily pen intakes and milk weights (3X) were recorded and averaged by week. Milk samples were collected weekly for milk composition. Blood samples were collected for NEFA and BHBA analysis on wk. 1 and 3 postpartum. Pen was the experimental unit. Mean group DMI was similar among treatments. Milk yield was similar for both fat products and higher (P<.01) than Control (47.3, 47.8 and 46.4kg for ML. PF and Control respectively). Both FCM and ECM were higher (P<.01) for PF compared to Control and ML (54.9, 50.8 and 52.2, and 52.7, 48.8 and 50.2 kg for FCM and ECM respectively). Milk Fat (% and yield) were higher (P<.01) for PF compared to Control and ML (4.42, 4.11 and 4.17%, and 2.10, 1.89 and 1.95kg respectively). Milk protein yield was higher (P<.01) for PF compared to Control, with ML not being different from either (1.36, 1.27and 1.31kg, respectively). MUN was lower (P<.01) for PF compared to ML and Control (11.8, 12.6 and 13.1 mg/dL respectively). There was no effect of trt on BHBA, however, wk. 1 NEFA tended to be lower (P=.14) for PF compared to ML and Control (.55, .83 and .81 mEq/L), whereas wk. 3 NEFA were lower (P=.04) for PF and Control compared to ML (..46, .42 and .85 mEq/L). These results demonstrate that early postpartum cows supplemented with fat produced more milk than non-supplemented cows and supplementing with an enriched C16 fat increased fat percentage and yield compared to Ca-salts of palm fatty acid and increased protein yield compared to no fat supplementation.
Keywords: palmitic acid, milk fat, dairy cows