Moderated Starch Nutrition for a Sustainable Dairy Industry: A Refined Pragmatic Wisdom

Abstract

Increased cow loss and treatment costs, and reduced longevity and sustainability in the world dairy industry may provide an insight into rethinking the starch feeding in dairy cows. The objective of this mini-review article was to underline the importance of moderated starch nutrition on the sustainable productivity and health of high-producing dairy cows. Increased milk production per cow through both genetic selection and nutritional programs may have led to decreased longevity and higher culling rates in commercial dairy farms. Starch is the primary energy source for lactating dairy cows, supplied mainly by cereal grains such as barley and corn. Feeding higher rates of starch, especially from barley grain with high rumen degradability can lead to health issues such as subacute rumen acidosis, causing economic losses. Reviewing the literature and large dairy herd observations, moderated starch feeding to modern dairy cows without major negative effects on milk yield and cow health should become a new pragmatic wisdom. It is suggested that the short and long-term effects of feeding varying amounts of different starch grains in high-merit dairy cows should be the focus of future research attention.