Scientists and feed companies are fine tuning fat supplements which can be fed to dairy cows as an additional energy source.

Ongoing research is focused on the building blocks of fat, known as fatty acids, and how they affect milk yields and body condition.

“Many commercial products that have been out there for 20-30 years basically took by-products from other industries and utilised those as fat supplements,” said Prof Adam Lock from Michigan State University.

“Now, we are starting to make products based on specific fatty acids because we are starting to understand that cows perform differently based on which fatty acids we provide them,” he explained.

We are getting the best of both worlds here where we are getting more milk production but without the body weight loss that we have seen previously

In an online press briefing last week, Lock presented new research which assessed different ratios of palmitic and oleic fatty acids in supplements fed to dairy cows in the US.

A key finding was that fat supplements fed in early lactation which included higher levels of oleic acid helped reduce body condition loss in high yielding cows.

“We are getting the best of both worlds here where we are getting more milk production but without the body weight loss that we have seen previously,” Lock said.

The study was based on Mega Max, a fat supplement manufactured by Volac Wilmar Feed Ingredients, which contains calcium salts and has a 60:30 ratio of palmitic and oleic acids.

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