Comparison of barley forage with highest, intermediate, and lowest digestible fiber (NDF) with corn forage in high production dairy cattle

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The present feeding of cereal grains to dairy and beef cattle is faced with increasing challenges in terms of animal production and health. The cost of feed grains is variable and has highly increased in recent times, threatening the economic competitiveness livestock production in western Canada. Alternative of feed resources particularly forages with high nutritive value are required to improve Feed Milk Value (FMV) and improve feeding utilization efficiency for dairy cows. However, how much difference, variation, nutrient availability and molecular structure between and within varieties of forage barley, is unknown. The objectives of this study are to reveal the unique inherent structures of three new barley and one new cool-season corn forage affected by feed processing and determine the sensitivities of intrinsic molecular structure to the processing using the advanced synchrotron radiation-based molecular infrared microspectroscopy and DRIFT /ATR-FTIR molecular spectroscopy and quantify intrinsic structural changes in relation to digestive kinetics and nutritive value in the rumen and intestine in ruminants. The proposed research program includes three projects. In project 1, we will reveal unique structural features of barley and corn forage affected by the processing and study the processing-induced changes on feed quality. In project 2, we will study N-to-energy synchronization of barley and corn forage and determine the processing impact on nutrient availability. In project 3, we will study truly absorbed protein supply of forage affected by the processing to dairy cattle. The hypothesis is that forage has unique intrinsic structure which can be detected by the advanced molecular spectroscopy techniques at a molecular level or Globar-sourced molecular spectroscopy and the feed structure changes induced by the processing will affect forage feed quality and nutrient availability, fermentation and digestion behavior in the rumen and intestines in dairy cattle. The final goals are to increase our basic knowledge of the nutritional relevance of feed intrinsic structure and feed chemistry in new barley and corn. The information obtained from this research program will support sustainable development of feed and livestock industry.