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Food, fibre and pharmaceuticals from animals
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Comparison of banana flower powder and sodium bicarbonate supplementation on rumen fermentation and milk production in dairy cows

Sungchhang Kang A , Metha Wanapat B C , Anusorn Cherdthong B and Kampanat Phesatcha B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Agricultural Unit, Department of Education, National Institute of Education, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

B Tropical Feed Resources Research and Development Centre (TROFREC), Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand.

C Corresponding author. Email: metha@kku.ac.th

Animal Production Science 56(10) 1650-1661 https://doi.org/10.1071/AN15055
Submitted: 2 February 2015  Accepted: 2 April 2015   Published: 17 June 2015

Abstract

Four Holstein-Friesian crossbred dairy cows were randomly assigned according to a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement in a 4 × 4 Latin square design to study the effect of banana flower powder (BAFLOP) and sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) supplementation as rumen-buffering agents on rumen fermentation and milk production. The first factor was two ratios of roughage to concentrate (R : C) at 60 : 40 and 40 : 60, whereas the second was two sources of buffering agent (BAFLOP and NaHCO3) supplemented at 20 g/kg of dry matter intake. All cows were fed total dry matter intake at 25 g/kg bodyweight and untreated rice straw was used as a roughage source. Feeding R : C at 40 : 60 increased nutrient digestibilities, nitrogen absorption, allantoin excretion and absorption, microbial nitrogen synthesis, microbial crude protein and efficiency of microbial nitrogen synthesis in both BAFLOP- and NaHCO3-supplemented groups. BAFLOP supplementation could maintain ruminal pH as NaHCO3. Blood urea nitrogen, total volatile fatty acid and propionate, and milk yield increased in cows fed R : C at 40 : 60 both in BAFLOP and NaHCO3 supplementation, whereas acetate was relatively high in cows consuming R : C at 60 : 40. However, rumen microorganisms were similar among treatments whereas milk compositions were unchanged by the dietary treatments, except milk fat and total solids were the highest in cow consumed R : C at 60 : 40. The results suggested that feeding R : C at 40 : 60 resulted in improvement of nutrient digestibility, rumen fermentation efficiency and milk production, and supplementation of BAFLOP showed similar buffering capacity as NaHCO3. Therefore, BAFLOP could be used efficiently as a dietary rumen-buffering agent and promisingly deserves a replacement for bicarbonate sources in lactating dairy cows fed on a high concentrate diet.

Additional keywords: buffering agent, dairy cow, rumen ecology.


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