The effect of addition sucrose and sunflower seeds to the diet on lactation performance and ruminal fermentation pattern in dairy cow

This study was conducted to examine the effect of dietary inclusion of sucrose with or without crushed sunflower seeds on ruminal fermentation, blood metabolites and performance in early lactating dairy cows. Eight Holstein dairy cows in a replicated 4×4 Latin square design with a 2×2 factorial arrangement of treatments were assigned to following experimental diets; 1) low sugar diet without added sunflower seeds and sucrose, 2) low sugar diet supplemented with sunflower seeds (8 percent of dry matter), 3) high sugar diet supplemented with sucrose (4 percentage of dry matter), and 4) high sugar diet supplemented with sucrose and sunflower seeds. Sucrose and sunflower seeds were substituted with corn grain in the diets. Dry matter intake, milk production yield and milk concentrations of protein, lactose and solid non-fat were not affected by the treatments. Dietary inclusion of sucrose increased milk fat (P<0.01) and milk corrected fat (P<0.05). Although, there were no differences between treatments for the ruminal concentration of ammonia nitrogen, total volatile fatty acids, propionate, butyrate, isovalerate, and valerate concentrations, feeding sucrose to dairy cows increased rumen concentration of acetate (P<0.01), rumen pH (P<0.01) and acetate to propionate ratio (P<0.1). Feeding dairy cows with diet containing eight percent of sunflower seeds increased plasma concentration of triglyceride (P<0.05) and cholesterol (P<0.01) in comparison with the diets without oil seeds. The current study showed that replacing corn grain with sucrose increased milk fat yield and milk corrected fat and modified ruminal fermentation pattern in dairy cows.