Transition period stillan an important subject

摘要

TRANSITION dairy cows still rank high on the list of important topics facing nutrition consultants and researchers. This was apparent at the recent national joint meeting of the American Dairy Science Assn. and American Society for Animal Science in Indianapolis, Ind., as several abstracts specifically looked at the transition period while others focused on that period. G.B. Penner and M. Oba of the University of Alberta presented abstract T197 on the effect of dietary sucrose concentration during early lactation on dry matter intake (DMI), plasma metabolites and lactation performance. Penner and Oba used 53 Holstein cows that were free of clinically diagnosed transition disorders. Cows were fed one of two experimental diets immediately after parturition that contained either 0% (LS) or 4.5% sucrose (HS). Diets consisted of 40% barley silage, 10% alfalfa hay and 50% of a common concentrate mix that differed in the sucrose concentration by including either sucrose plus urea or cracked corn grain.