Production Performance Of Dairy Cows Fed On Steam-Flaked Corn As A Replacement Of Crushed Corn

Effect of feeding steam-flaked corn on production performance of lactation dairy cattle was investigated. For this purpose, 112 lactating Chinese Holstein cows having similar milk yields, lactation periods, parities, ages and body scores were randomly separated into two equal (n=56) groups. The experiment continued for 120 days divided into three (1st 2nd and 3rd) periods, each of 35 days, with an adaptation interval of five days. The crushed corn (CC) based diet was replaced with steam-flaked corn (SFC) gradually from 20-100% replacement plan. During adaptation period, SFC replacement was 20, 55 and 85%; whereas, SFC replacement during experimental periods was 40, 70 and 100% in 1st 2nd and 3rd periods. Results revealed that the SFC group had better average milk yield than CC group. The mean of these increment milk yields was 1.48 kg (P<0.05). The protein percentage and the sugar in milk of SFC group was higher than CC group; whereas, urine nitrogen and somatic cell count of SFC group was lower than CC group by 0.9% (P>0.05) and 30,800 cells/mL (P<0.05), respectively. The present study confirmed that utilizing SFC diet increased milk yield, improved milk production traits, and enhanced the performance of cows. (C) 2018 Friends Science Publishers