Beet Pulp

A Solution to Reduce Fat Cows' Body Condition Scores (BCS)

Abstract

Fat cow syndrome is an important problem in the dairy industry when large groups of cows are fed ad libitum. This is common where large amounts of corn silage are fed and attention is not paid to limiting access to concentrates. Various metabolic disorders threaten these cows, including fatty liver, ketosis, displaced abomasum, oxidative stress, hypocalcaemia, and reproductive problems. Nowadays, there isn't any way to reduce body condition score (BCS) except for diluting diet, resulting in lower milk production. We hypothesize that altering dietary composition can influence partitioning of nutrients toward the mammary gland rather than other body tissues. Our objective was to determine effects of replacing barley grain (glucogenic) with beet pulp (lipogenic) on milk fat and energy outputs and changes in BCS and external body fat thickness in over-conditioned, late lactation cows.