Bean coproduct as source of protein in dairy cows diets

The objective of this study was to evaluate the supplementation of dairy cows with different protein sources in relation to intake, digestibility, production and chemical composition of milk. For this, eight crossbred cows (Hostein x Gir) were used, distributed in two simultaneous latin squares (4x4). The treatments used were: bean coproduct, soybean meal, sunflower meal and cottonseed meal. Four variance-covariance structures were tested by means of the Akaike criterion corrected to determine the best fit to the data, and afterwards they were submitted to analysis of variance, and the means of the treatments were compared by the Tukey's test, at 5% probability. Only intakes of crude protein and crude fat were influenced by the treatments, for the digestibility, regardless of the evaluated nutrient, the soybean meal was the best treatment or was among the best, a behavior also observed for milk production. Thus, it was concluded that soybean meal is the best source of protein among the supplements used, and the bean coproduct stands out as a low-cost protein source but should not fully replace soybean meal, especially in animal categories of higher nutritional requirement.