Feeds For Dairy Cattle
Forum: Feeding Dairy Cattle with Milk Whey
Hello Colleagues
What do you think about using milk whey to feed cows in production? What are the consequences of its use and abuse? Which is the parameter to be applied?
Thank you!
Greetings from Iowa.-
Jeff Zimmerman
Jeff,
Good video about dairy cattle. I have fed milk whey in its raw ,not concentrated form,to my dairy herd for many years with great results.
The issues are ensuring that it is always in a lactic acid form and not varying between lactose and lactic acid so the output volumes from the factory need to be managed well.
As my roughage base is only wheat straw I do not have any issues with the expected very liquid manure if a good roughage source does not bind the rumen.
2 potential issues to take care of :flies are a major problem as well as adopting the animals to drinking the whey the first time as they will not just drink it free choice until water is removed and there might be a cow or 2 that even after 10 days stops drinking after first time introduction so they need to be watched
Philip
Why do you want to feed dairy cattle milk whey in the first place?
Secondly, concerning the issue with the flies, you may want to use milk whey powder and mix it when needed. In this case why not even thinking about using a milk replacer whey based. If fat is too high, you may use a product without any fat which is supposed to be mixed raw milk. We sell this product in France. it has a premix of minerals and vitamins, whey and wheat starch. It has 13[percent] proteins and 0[percent] fat.
In fact you should have a problem with the cows drinking the whey. This is why we complement our product with aromas and sweeteners.
I do not know if this could help as normally this product is made for calves. However, you should have less problem to stock this type of product than liquid whey. Moreover the product is completed in terms of minerals and vitamins.
Hoping this hel and is not too far away from your original question.
Olivier Morel
You can use milk whey in calves and veal calf feeding as a protein source but in lactating cows and mature cattle who has improved rumen it is just waste of time and energy.
