Nutrient demand interacts with forage family to affect digestion responses in dairy cows

Effects of forage family on dry matter intake (DMI), milk production, ruminal pool sizes, digestion and passage kinetics, and chewing activity and the relationship of these effects with preliminary DMI (pDMI), an index of nutrient demand, were evaluated using 13 ruminally and duodenally cannulated Holstein cows in a crossover design with a 14-d preliminary period and two 18-d treatment periods. During the preliminary period, pDMI of individual cows ranged from 19.6 to 29.5 kg/d (mean=25.9 kg/d) and 3.5% fat-corrected milk yield ranged from 24.3 to 60.3 kg/d (mean=42.1 kg/d). Experimental treatments were diets containing either a) alfalfa silage (AL) or b) orchardgrass silage (OG) as the sole forage. Alfalfa and orchardgrass contained 42.3 and 58.2% neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and 22.5 and 11.4% crude protein, respectively. Forage:concentrate ratios were 60:40 and 43:57 for AL and OG, respectively; both diets contained approximately 25% forage NDF and 30% total NDF. Preliminary DMI was determined during the last 4 d of the preliminary period when cows were fed a common diet and used as a covariate. Main effects of forage family and their interaction with pDMI were tested by ANOVA. Forage family and its interaction with pDMI did not affect feed intake, milk yield, or milk composition. The AL diet increased indigestible NDF (iNDF) intake and decreased potentially digestible NDF (pdNDF) intake compared with OG. The AL diet increased ruminal pH, digestion rates of pdNDF and starch, and passage rates of pdNDF and iNDF compared with OG, which affected ruminal digestibility. Passage rate of iNDF was related to pDMI; AL increased iNDF passage rate and OG decreased it as pDMI increased. The AL diet decreased ruminal pool sizes of pdNDF, starch, organic matter, dry matter, and rumen digesta wet weight and volume compared with OG. The AL diet decreased ruminating time per unit of forage NDF consumed compared with OG, indicating that alfalfa provided less physically effective fiber than orchardgrass. The AL diet, but not OG, increased ammonia N, nonammonia nonmicrobial N, and nonammonia N fluxes as pDMI increased. Efficiency of microbial protein synthesis was positively related to pdNDF passage rate for OG, but not AL. The faster rates of digestion and passage for AL compared with OG decreased rumen pool size but did not increase feed intake for cows consuming AL. Digestion responses to forage family were affected by nutrient demand of cows.