Eight high-yielding Jersey cows were randomly assigned to two 4x4 Latin squares to study the effects of different dietary fat sources on intakes of dry matter (DMI), neutral detergent fiber (NDFI), and ether extract (EEI) as well as on milk yield and composition. The following treatments were used: concentrate with no added fat (control = C); concentrate plus tallow (T); concentrate plus commercial ruminally protected fat (calcium salts + palm oil; PF); and concentrate plus whole soybean (WS). Both DMI and NDFI did not differ significantly among treatments. However, EEI was higher for cows fed diets containing the added fat sources than for those fed the C diet. Both milk yield and milk yield corrected for 4% fat (FCM) were highest on PF, intermediate on T, and lowest on C and WS diets. Cows fed PF had greater feed efficiency expressed as FCM/DMI (1.50), compared with those fed T or WS diets but it was similar to C (1.38). Contents of milk fat, crude protein, casein, total solids, solids-nonfat, density, and the cryoscopic index all were not affected by dietary treatments. It can be concluded that addition of fat sources to diets of lactating Jersey cows is recommended because improved milk yield and feed efficiency with no deleterious effects on DMI and milk composition.
efficiency; fat by pass; high-yielding cows; soybean grain; tallow
