Presented during Pre-Conference Symposium sponsored by Elanco Animal Health
Managing the Diet to Control Ruminal Fatty Acid-Microbial Interactions That Reduce Milk Fat Synthesis - Dr. Tom Jenkins, Clemson University (retired)
In the early 1900’s, fat supplements were recognized for enhancing milk
fat. A hundred years later, the opposite view prevailed causing major
shifts in the types of fats fed to dairy cows to avoid a decline in milk
fat. The evolution of this change had more to do with how cows were
fed than it did with changes in fat sources. This presentation will
review where we are today in recognizing how nature of the basal diet
fed to dairy cows is a primary determinant of how a given amount and
source of an individual fatty acid will affect milk fat.