Digestibility is key to making most of fibre

摘要

Fibre makes up the highest proportion of the cow's diet, but it is the hardest nutrient to digest - much harderthan protein, oil, starch or sugar.As well as being relatively difficult to digest, there is intrinsically a big variation in the digestibility of fibre depending on factors like grass variety and weather conditions during the growing season.Dr Ingram says: "Herein may lie some problems. Winter 2019/20 saw the grass continue to grow in many parts of the UK and then we suffered unusually dry conditions in spring followed by wet weather in June and July. This put the grass under stress and will have affected the fibre quality and, ultimately, its value to the cow."