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Progut® Info Letter 4/2009
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Progut® Info Letter 4/2009
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29.12.2009
The effect of Progut® Rumen on milk production
1. Introduction
A ruminant version of hydrolysed brewery yeast,
Progut® Rumen, is widely used in different compound feeds, half-concentrates and special feeds in
Finland. However, adding Progut® Rumen to total- and partial mixed rations (TMR and PMR) as such has
been problematic due to low dosage rate (10 g/day/cow) of the product. Edible Portion is a new feed innovation for TMR
and PMR farms. Edible portion (2 kg) includes a certain nutrient for 25 cows. Portion as such is feed, i.e. it can be
added directly to the mixer wagon and the entire portion (content + surface layer) is digestible feed for ruminants.
The aim of the innovation is to offer new possibilities for dosing of special feeds to farms using mixed
feeding.
The aim of the study was to test Progut® Rumen
in Edible Portion and to test the effect of Progut® Rumen Portion on milk
production. Previous studies have showed that Progut® Rumen clearly increases milk production throughout
the lactation period.
2. Materials and methods
Progut® Rumen Portions were tested in four
different PMR farms in Finland in 2009. Three farms had milking robots and one farm milking parlour. Mixed rations were
based on grass silage, cereals (wheat, barley, oat), rapeseed meal and minerals. These diets were supplemented with
different compound feeds in order to meet the nutrient requirements in different lactation phases.
Milk production was registered by collecting individual milk
records once per month. Individual milk records contained milk yield, days in milk, number of calving and
Progut® Rumen +/-. Control period was obtained between August 2008 and March 2009 for each farm. Test
period was obtained between April 2009 and July 2009. Altogether, milk records were collected from 12 months period.
Test milk records collected < 10 days after calving were removed from the final data due to unreliability of the
samples. Data consisted of 1890 individual milk records and 266 cows. Statistical analyses were made with GLM procedure
(SPSS 17.0).
3. Results
Progut® Rumen Portions increased daily milk
yield throughout the lactation period on average 1.6 kg/cow (table 1 and figure 1). The difference between control and
test groups was similar in all phases of the lactation period. Annual milk production was improved on average 596 kg
per cow and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.01).
Table 1. Average daily milk production in control and test
groups during 12 months post calving.
| Months in
milk |
Control |
Progut® Rumen |
Difference |
| 1 |
28.6 |
27.9 |
-0.7 |
| 2 |
32.6 |
33.7 |
1.0 |
| 3 |
32.4 |
35.0 |
2.6 |
| 4 |
31.2 |
33.5 |
2.2 |
| 5 |
29.5 |
32.0 |
2.5 |
| 6 |
27.8 |
30.7 |
2.9 |
| 7 |
26.3 |
28.7 |
2.4 |
| 8 |
25.0 |
26.7 |
1.7 |
| 9 |
23.4 |
24.6 |
1.1 |
| 10 |
21.9 |
22.7 |
0.8 |
| 11 |
19.7 |
21.1 |
1.4 |
| 12 |
19.0 |
20.6 |
1.6 |
| |
| Average |
26.5 |
28.1 |
1.6 |
| 305 day
production |
8504 |
9010 |
507 |
| Year
production |
9658 |
10254 |
596 |
Figure 1. Average daily milk production in control and
test groups during 12 months post calving.
4. Discussion
Progut® Rumen Portions increased daily milk
yield throughout the lactation period on average 1.6 kg/cow. Previous field studies and in vitro studies
carried out in Finland supports this result. In vitro trials carried out by Alimetrics Ltd. 2007 showed that
Progut® Rumen significantly increased VFA- and microbial protein synthesis with the different diet
roughage-concentrate rations (25/75; 50/50; 75/25). In addition, rumen fermentation rate has been enhanced both in
corn- and grass silage based diets (Alimetrics Ltd. 2006).
In the previous field studies carried out in Finland in 2006
and 2007, Progut® was mixed either in a compound feed or in a half-concentrate that was fed in
combination with grains (barley, wheat or oats). Test-day milk records were collected from 22 farms (5846 milk
records). Daily milk yield increased on average 1.8 kg per cow and the difference was statistically significant (p <
0.001). Same trial protocol was repeated in 2008 with four Finnish farms. Daily milk yield increased on average 2.2 kg
per cow but the improvement wasn’t statistically significant. The lack of significance may be due to high
variation and low amount of milk records (1113 milk records) obtained in the trial.
Taking together, all field trials carried out in Finland
between 2006 and 2009 have increased daily milk yield on average 2.1 kg per cow (figure 2). The data consists
altogether from 9318 individual milk records. The difference stays similar throughout the lactation period and is
highly statistical significant (p < 0.001).
Figure 2. The effect of Progut® Rumen on
milk production. A summary from field trials 2006-2009.
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