Dynamic Aspects of Feeding Management for Dairy Cows

Interactions between feedstuff characteristics, animal characteristics, and quality of animal management determine potential for productive benefits to increased frequency of feeding or changes in the sequence of offer of individual feedstuffs to dairy cows. Productive benefits can be exhibited as improved milk yield, increased milk component yield, or improved maintenance of body condition. There are many reported research studies on the influence of feeding frequency that report improvement in one of these areas, particularly if infrequent feeding caused diurnal variations in rumen metabolite concentrations. However, benefits are often relatively small in relation to the importance placed upon multiple, or sequenced, daily feeding by commercial producers. The apparent dichotomy between field observations and research results is examined, and reasons for benefits under some conditions, bot not others, are addressed with particular reference to the importance of rumen microbial yield, passage of particles from the rumen, as well as potential affects of end products of rumen microbial fermentation on fermentave efficiency. Design and interpretation of studies of feeding frequency, due to problems of nonsteady state conditions, continue to cause difficulties and are an obstacle to progress in this area.