Basics of dairy diet design

Feeds and how they are included in diets

Abstract

The challenges of feeding dairy cows to maximize production while doing it in an economically sustainable way, requires dairy nutritionists and veterinarians to have a great understanding of rumen microbial output and the feeds we utilize to feed the rumen. It is the purpose of this presentation to describe and explain some very basic concepts of rumen dynamics and microbiology that are utilized to make decisions on how to include different feeds into diets while maintaining rumen and cow health and maximizing rumen output.