Influence of reducing starch in the diets with similar protein and energy contents on lactation performance, ruminal fermentation, digestibility, behaviour and blood metabolites in primiparous and multiparous dairy cows

Background: It is not clearly known whether parity can affect the outcomes of starch reduction in the diet of lactating dairy cows. Introduction: A 2 x 2 factorial study was conducted to evaluate the effects of reducing starch in the diets with similar protein and energy contents on lactation performance, ruminal fermentation, nutrient digestibility, behaviour and blood metabolites in primiparous (PP) and multiparous (MP) dairy cows. Methods: Twenty PP cows (DIM = 37 +/- 10; 40 +/- 5 kg/day of milk; mean +/- SD) and 20 MP cows (DIM = 37 +/- 9; 48 +/- 5 kg/day of milk) were used in present study. Treatments were a factorial arrangement of two levels of starch (high vs. low) and two parity categories (PP vs. MP): (1) high-starch diet (29.2% +/- 0.70) and PP cows (HS-PP); (2) low-starch diet (22.3% +/- 0.52) and PP cows (LS-PP); (3) high-starch diet and MP cows (HS-MP) and (4) low-starch diet and MP cows (LS-MP). All diets were formulated to be similar in crude protein (16.1 % of dry matter) and NEL (1.60 Mcal/kg of dry matter) contents. The amount of metabolise protein was 2688 g/day in high-starch diet and 2728 g/day in low-starch diet. The experiment was conducted over two consecutive periods and included 4 weeks for adaptation and 3 weeks for data collection. Results: Dry matter intake and the yield of milk true protein and lactose increased but milk fat: protein ratio and nutrient digestibility decreased for cows fed the HS diets compared with the LS diets. The ruminal proportion of propionate was greater but acetate, the acetate to propionate ratio and sorting against long particles (19 and 8 mm) were lower for cows fed the HS diets than the LS diets. Multiparous cows had a greater nutrient intake and milk yield, longer rumination meal length, greater BW, but lower plasma total antioxidant capacity, non-esterified fatty acids, faeces pH compared with PP cows. An interaction between parity and the dietary level of starch was detected on feed efficiency measured as FCM yield/DMI in the way that only within PP cows low-starch diet was more efficient than HS diets. We found another interaction effect of parity x starch on back fat thickens (BFT) change in the way that only within PP cows BFT change was greater for HS compared with LS diet. Conclusion: Overall, regardless of the benefit derived from feeding a reduced-starch diet by partially replacing grains with sugar beet pulp in the diets on nutrient digestibility, a reduced-starch diet may be used more efficiently in PP than in MP cows but at expense of body reserves (i.e. BFT) loses.