Agri
Recommended Feed Additives
In This Section:
Recommended Feed Additives
What are the benefits of using Actisaf?
- Increased milk yield worth up to €76/cow per lactation
- Yield increases of up to 3 litres/cow/day
- Higher, earlier lactation peaks
- Yields being maintained for longer
- Milk protein increases of up to 4.3%
- Milk butterfat increases of up to 9.8%
- Increased Dry Matter Intakes (DMIs)
- Reduced incidences of acidosis, lameness and cud balls
- Improved fertility with less repeats due to better rumen efficiency
- More content animals
Overall, Actisaf creates a healthier, more efficient rumen, which promotes higher intake and better feed utilisation ultimately leading to more productive, healthy and contented animals.
How does it work?
Actisaf:
- Stabilises rumen pH by reducing the build up of lactic acid, which causes acidosis
- Increases VFA (energy) production and microbial protein synthesis, which both increase milk and milk protein yield
- Reduces rumen oxygen content and stimulates the growth of rumen organisms that digest fibre and starch, thus increasing feed intake and helping efficient digestion
How do I use Actisaf?
Actisaf is heat and acid stable and can be included in both compound or home mixed diets. It is available in farm packs or can be mixed in a concentrated form directly into your compound.
Conditioning the Rumen in Lactation
Failure to maintain a consistent rumen pH in high yielding dairy cows may result in metabolic disorders and reduced production performance. Increasing energy supply through increased use of concentrates or rapidly fermentable fibre can plunge the rumen into acidosis, at which level lactic acid starts to accumulate and volatile fatty acid (VFA) production is compromised. This results in a very inefficient rumen.
To optimise both milk yield and quality, it is important to minimise the amount of time rumen pH drops below 5.5. This will lead to increased volatile fatty acid production and improved rumen efficiency
How does Acid Buf condition the rumen?
- By holding the rumen pH between 5.5 and 6.2: The effect of conditioning the rumen with Acid Buf (90g/cow/day) was compared with a buffering agent, sodium bicarbonate (180g/cow/day) and a control. The Acid Buf treatment minimised the amount of time the pH spent below 5.5, resulting in a much more efficient rumen leading to greater milk production.
- By increasing total volatile fatty acids: The balance of volatile fatty acid production is crucial to rumen efficiency and optimum milk production. The production of propionate needs to be maximised with an optimum amount of acetate still being produced. Feeding Acid Buf at between 80-100g/cow/day maintains the VFA ratio while increasing volatile fatty acid production leading to optimum rumen efficiency and milk production.
- By providing a bio-available source of calcium and magnesium: Certain minerals are utilised by bacteria within the rumen and others (e.g. magnesium) are absorbed directly through the rumen wall. It is therefore essential that these minerals are in a soluble form at rumen pH. The calcium and magnesium in Acid Buf are totally bio-available and can be readily absorbed through the rumen wall or utilised by the bacteria to improve rumen efficiency.
Acid Buf and the Close Up Dry Cow Diet
The management of the post calving negative energy gap starts in the close-up dry cow diet by feeding increased levels of concentrate. Reducing the negative energy gap improves milk sustainability, as well as allowing the cow to gain weight for better fertility. Unfortunately, by increasing concentrate levels during transition the cow runs the risk of increased incidence of sub-acute ruminal acidosis and metabolic disorders.
How does Acid Buf help reduce the negative energy gap post-calving?
Acid Buf has a neutral loading, eliminating any causes of imbalances within the diet allowing:
- Increased consumption of concentrates pre-calving
- Reduced incidence of sub-acute ruminal acidosis and metabolic disorders
Acid Buf conditions the rumen and allows it to work more efficiently. Acid Buf is manufactured from calcareous marine algae, which is harvested from clean, unpolluted waters off the coasts of Ireland and Iceland. It is a highly effective rumen buffer and pure source of bio-available minerals deposited within its structure by the sea, especially calcium and magnesium. Thanks to its unique honeycombed physical structure and large surface area, Acid Buf breaks down slowly in the cow – conditioning the rumen and neutralising significantly more acid, over a longer period, than many conventional buffers. As Acid Buf breaks down it releases highly bioavailable calcium and magnesium to the cow.
Acid Buf in the lactating cow
- Better neutralisation of rumen acid
- Excellent source of bio-available minerals
- Improves fibre digestion
- Boosts milk yield and quality
Acid Buf in the dry cow
- Allows increased concentrate feeding close to calving
- Excellent source of bio-available minerals
- Reduces the risk of metabolic disorders
- Conditions the rumen for Lactation
Recommendations for Use:
- Dairy cows (Lactation)
- 50g-80g/cow/day
- Note:
- Diet acidity should be taken into consideration when determining rate of inclusion. The more acidic the diet, the higher the inclusion.
- In the event of the diet acidity not being apparent include at 80g/cow/day and reduce to level of acidosis control.
- During periods of high summer temperatures (heat stress) increase inclusion rates by 20%.
- Dairy Cows (Dry cow transition): 50g/cow/day
- Beef Cattle (Feedlots): 25g-50g/cow/day
- Sheep & Goats (Feedlots): 0.5% of compound feed
Volac fat products – features and benefits
Volac produce a range of fat products targeted to meet specific objectives on individual farms. All our products are based on calcium salts of fatty acids and our main product, Megalac, was the first rumen-protected fat product developed using saponification as a method of rumen protection for the fatty acids. Through our links with Cambridge University in the UK, Volac worked with Profs. Palmquist and Jenkins at Ohio State University in the USA to utilise their newly-developed technology to develop the Megalac product which has remained the world’s leading protected fat for over 25 years.
Volac’s range of protected fat-based products include:
- Megalac – calcium salts of palm fatty acid distillate
- Megalac Plus – standard Megalac but including 3% protected methionine
- Megafat – a high-C16:0 product targeted to increase milk fat %, milk production and fertility
- Megapro 30S – protected (sustainably-sourced) fat and protected protein in ideal balance
- Flaxpro – protected fat with omega-3 fatty acids for fertility and milk production
Why protected fat?
Protected fat is essential in rations to increase dietary fat concentration. Unprotected fat e.g. vegetable oils and high-oil ingredients such as brewers grains, reduce fibre digestibility and are directly toxic to some strains of rumen bacteria. These ‘free’ oils can also lead to the production of trans fatty acids which reduce milk fat %.
Megalac protected fat
Megalac is produced by a saponification reaction in which fatty acids from the palm oil industry are reacted with calcium (Ca). This produces rumen-insoluble, rumen-inert Ca salts of fatty acids which have no negative effects on rumen fibre digestion or rumen function, unlike ‘free’, unprotected oils.
The fatty acid profile of Megalac is (% of total fatty acids):
Megalac works according to acid / alkali differences. At rumen pH (ideally >6.0) the Ca salts are stable, but when they enter the acidic conditions of the small intestine the product breaks down into its constituent fat and Ca components – both of these components are then available to the animal for absorption.
The balance of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids in Megalac, the content and delivery of C18:1 fatty acids to the small intestine, and the fact that the fat is present as free fatty acids rather than triglycerides helps ensure the product has a high digestibility; digestibility has been determined at 96% in dairy cows.
Megalac delivers unsaturated fatty acids to the small intestine and can increase digestibility of the total fat and other components in the diet.
The ME of Megalac is 33.3 MJ/kg DM; this is approximately 2.5 times the energy concentration of typical cereals.
Megalac is the only fat product with a measured NEL value. This value was determined in calorimetric chambers with milk producing cows in the USA. The NEL of Megalac is 27.3 MJ/kg DM, proving that the energy in Megalac is used very efficiently for milk production.
Megalac has been widely proven in independent research studies over the past 25 years to increase milk production. A recent study at the University of Reading (UK) reported an improvement in milk yield of 4.3 kg/day when cows were offered Megalac at 500 g/cow/day for the first 120 days in lactation, an increase of over 500 kgs per cow (Figure 1). The average milk yield response to supplementation is 2.3 kg/cow/day.
Figure 1 Effect of Megalac on milk production (Aikman et al., 2008)
Megalac can be added to rations to help reduce heat stress in dairy cows and other ruminant animals. As it is not fermented in the rumen and the energy is used very efficiently for milk production, Megalac can help reduce metabolic heat production and has a lower heat increment than other ingredients.
As a rumen-protected fat, Megalac does not add to the acid load in the rumen. Unlike rapidly fermented cereal starches, Megalac is a very ‘safe’ method of increasing energy density and can help reduce the incidence and extent of acidosis.
Megalac is well-proven to improve cow fertility (Table 1). Feeding Megalac increases dietary energy density to help reduce negative energy balance in the early lactation period when dry matter intake is limited. A 500 g/d supplement of Megalac typically increases energy density by 0.5 MJ/kg DM. Reducing negative energy balance is a key factor in helping reduce body condition score loss which is closely related to fertility.
Megalac has positive effects on follicle growth and improves quality and viability of ovulated eggs, increasing the chance of a successful pregnancy. Supplementing with Megalac is an effective method of increasing progesterone concentration in blood plasma; adequate progesterone, ‘the hormone of pregnancy’, is essential to ensure successful pregnancy.
Recent research has demonstrated the importance of fatty acid profile of fat supplements in improving cow fertility. Megalac protected fat delivers unsaturated fatty acids to the small intestine which can help improve cow fertility.
| Control | Megalac-supplemented | |
|---|---|---|
| Conception rate to 1st service (%) | 33.7 | 45.5 |
| Conception rate to 2nd service (%) | 28.8 | 75.0 |
| Pregnancy rate (%) | 52.3 | 86.4 |
As almost half the fatty acids in Megalac are unsaturated and in rumen-protected form, inclusion of Megalac in rations can effectively reduce the proportion of saturated fatty acids in milk fat and increase the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids, particularly C18:1
