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Dairy cattle raising in Thailand and the role of milk
The consumption of milk and milk products in Thailand
Problems and constraints in the development of dairy cattle farming in Thailand
The use of some local feed resources for ruminant production
Effect of tannins and saponins supplementation in ruminants
Factors affecting voluntary intake and roughage digestibility in dairy cattle
Feeding fat to lactating dairy cows
Supplementation of sunflower oil and coconut oil to lactating dairy cattle
Dairy farming in Thailand began around 90 years ago. The first dairy cattlemen came from India and Pakistan and lived in the villages around Bangkok (Chantalakahana, 1995). It was not until the establishment of a dairy farm and herd training centre funded by the Danish government in 1962 that commercial milk production became a possibility. Following on from this initiative, several dairy development projects were organized by the government of Thailand, for example, the Department of Livestock Development (DLD) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC) formed links with foreign groups to establish the Thai–Danish Dairy Project in Muak Lek (Saraburi Province), and the Thai–German Dairy Project in Chiang Mai Province, so that by the early 1970s, the government's agricultural policies were clearly aimed to promote dairy products (Chantalakahana, 1995). The responsibility for this promotion was passed to the newly established Dairy Promotion Organization of Thailand (DPOT), a state-owned enterprise under MOAC and, in 1977, the Thai–Germany Dairy Project was handed over to the DLD. Both the DPOT and the DLD provide local milk producers with access to facilities for milk processing, and their roles also involved research and the education of farmers with regards to the production of milk an acceptable hygienic quality. The objectives of DPO are to promote milk production, to process milk and to sell milk products. Several important activities have been employed by the DPO to promote dairy farming. These include offering crossbred heifers at low price to newly established dairy farmers, training people wanting to become dairy farmers, provision of extension services, including artificial insemination, veterinary services, milk recording, farm management advice, a milk collection centre and the buying of milk at guaranteed prices.
Since the 1980s, local milk production increased rapidly and the raw milk production in 1999 stood at around 462,800 tons per year compared with only 45,212 tons per year in 1984. According to statistics, the number of dairy farmers has increased from around 6,600 in 1987 to 17,893 in 2003. During this same period the numbers of dairy cattle increased from around 75,500 to about 496,508, and produced 888,220 tons of raw milk and imported milk and milk products equivalent to 182,281 tons (Office of Agricultural Economics, 2006). Although dairy farming started in the 1960s, even today milk production is insufficient to meet the rising demand, which is driven by population growth, and the desire for a better standard of living. Dairy products, especially in the form of milk powder, have to be imported, mainly from Australia and New Zealand. In recent year the Thai Government's plan for the development of dairying aims to reduce imports of milk powder and dairy products, but it also provides the farmers with the opportunity to earn increased and more regular incomes and generate employment opportunities in the farming, milk processing and manufacturing industries.
Practically, 95 to 99 % of dairy farms in Thailand can be classified as small scale or small-holder farms under mixed crop-livestock farming systems (Wanapat, 1995a; Chantalakhana and Skunmum, 2002). Crop residues, shrubs, and tree fodders are locally available in large amounts and are important in small farms to alleviate shortages of feed and increase the efficiency of the production systems in the tropics (Leng, 1993) including the Northeast of Thailand (Wanapat, 1999). Concentrate supplementation for lactating dairy cows has been practiced by many small-holder farmers in the tropics by giving 0.5 kg of concentrates per 1 kg of milk (ratio of 1:2), as a rule of thumb, without taking into account the nature of the roughage used and the actual nutrient requirements (Wanapat, 1999). In some areas of Thailand, concentrate use was found to be even higher than 1:1 concentrate to milk yield, which could possibly result in rumen acidosis, especially when effective sources of fibre are not available. Feed costs are about 70% of total operating costs, the largest being expenditure on concentrates (65- 80 %) resulting in increasing production cost, while availability of funds from various agencies is at present relatively limited for small-holder farmers (Wanapat, 1995b). Further research development should be undertaken in the areas of animal nutrition and feeding of locally available resources and forage crops in order to alleviate low productivity, and to increase milk production efficiency.
The consumption of milk and milk products is rapidly increasing in Thailand. However, the produced raw milk can not meet the demand of the whole country, and therefore milk and milk products have to be imported, mainly from Australia and New Zealand. In Thailand more than 1.7 million liquid milk and equivalent tons of dairy products are consumed every year, and the consumption of liquid milk has increased dramatically from 6.81 kg per capita in 1994 to 29 kg in 2000. This change is due to successive Thai governments promoting milk consumption because of its high nutritional value, especially as a protein source (Leekpai, 1999). Chantalakhana and Skunmum (2002) have observed that milk from rural small-holder dairy farms is totally for sale and not used for home consumption. It has also been observed that rural farmers rarely consume beef or pork from their own production. Fish is a more common source of protein for rural people, while chickens and eggs are less common. The raw milk collected by DPO and the cooperatives is processed into ready-to-drink (RTD) milk or sold in bulk to private dairy companies, and the latter also use the raw milk for RTD milk, which includes pasteurized milk, U.H.T. milk, canned sterilized milk, etc. In the first instance, the raw milk production could be used to meet the demand for RTD milk. Free milk in schools has also played a key part in promoting milk consumption across the whole country. A School Milk Program was initiated in 1992 to provide pre-school children up until the fourth grade (10 years olds) with a chance to drink milk every day during the school year. An added benefit of the program has been that it encouraged parents to send their children to school. Thus, the two benefits from this program are that children get an education and have a chance to drink milk every day in order to improve their health.
There are many reasons which lead to problems and constraints in the development of dairy cattle farms in Thailand. The major constraints for the raw milk production are many, for example high costs of feeds, with approximately 60-75 % of the costs of milk productions being through feeding concentrate (Wongnen et al., 1998). Therefore, the reduction of feed costs is important to get higher profits in dairy farming. Unfavorable climatic conditions (Vercoe, 1999), weak disease control, herd management (Aiumlamai, 1999), and poor nutrition are further factors. The reasons for these problems are large variations in rainfall and soil fertility, and the long dry season, so feed is not available all the year. Other serious problems that often occur on dairy farms are low fertility and low conception rates, a high incidence of mastitis and low milk yields; these mainly result from a shortage of quality roughage, such as silage and hay, to provide the animals with sufficient feed, especially during the dry season (Kiyothong, 1998). Two further problems exacerbate the situation: firstly, most farmers do not have their own pastures, and hence they have to cut grasses from natural grassland and bring them back to feed their animals (Reverse, 1999; Jedsadabundit, 1998), and these grasses are generally have high fiber and low protein contents. Secondly, most farmers do not keep farm records, even though they realize that records are beneficial with respect to improving productivity (Wittayagone, 2001). The Thai government has introduced a policy to develop better animal feeds to solve these problems. This policy involves the training of farmers to make hay and silage, in order to have good quality feed for their animals for all seasons. Additionally, the government provides farmers with seeds of grasses and legumes to cultivate their own pastures. Agricultural extension officers visit farmers on their farms to ensure that the policy succeeds.
Feed resources such as crop residues, shrubs, and tree fodders are locally available in large amounts and are potentially important in small farms to alleviate shortages of feed and increase the efficiency of the production systems in the tropics (Leng, 1993) including the northeast of Thailand (Wanapat, 1999). Cassava chips/pellets and cassava hay, baby corn stovers, and kapok meal are good examples feed resources, while rice straw is the most common and important crop residue for ruminants during the long dry season, although rice straws are very low in CP (3-4%). There are many methods for improving the digestibility and nutritive value of rice straw. Treatment with urea can be a simple, practical method and is more readily accepted by dairy farmers. Wanapat et al. (1983) cited by Wanapat (1990a) demonstrated that ensiling rice straw with 5% urea using a ratio of rice straw to water of 1:1 and storing it for 2 weeks increased in vitro DM digestibility by 12% and CP by 9 % units. Intake of UTRS as compared with untreated rice straw was higher (95 vs. 65 g DM/kg W.0.75) while digestibility was also higher (52 vs. 42 %). Wanapat (1990b) summarized that UTRS could increase CP (from 3-4 to 7-9 %), digestibility (from 46 % to 50-55 %) and intake by 30-40 %. In addition, feeding 5% UTRS with a higher pH of 8.0 would help to maintain ruminal pH to be higher or nearly neutral (Wanapat, 1984 cited by Wanapat, 1990a).
Numerous studies have been conducted to determine the effects of feeding ruminants with sugarcane residue, such as ensiling chopped sugarcane-tops (Saccharum officinarum) with urea (Preston and Leng, 1987), sugarcane-tops silage (Sritakoonpech, 1990) and dried-chopped and pelleted sugarcane-top (Yuangklang et al., 2005). Results have indicated that it improves digestibility and feed intake in beef cattle. By-products of the agricultural industry, for example Mungbean bran, kapok meal and cotton seed meal, have been shown to be comparable to soybean meal when supplemented in heifer rations (Promkot, 2003). Preston and Willis (1974) demonstrated that diets containing a large proportion of molasses and small inputs of by-pass protein dramatically increase the growth rate and feed efficiency of cattle. Other local feed resources, such as peanuts, cowpea vines, and leucaena, which are available on farms, could be exploited as supplement for ruminants. Cassava hay (Manihot esculenta, Crantz) has been shown to be an excellent foliage for ruminants in the dry season. High levels of protein sources used either by direct supplementation or as a component in concentrate mixtures, especially cassava hay supplementation at 2-3 kg/hd/d, improved efficiency, reduced production cost and increased farm profits (Wanapat et al., 2000). Liu et al. (2001) reported that mulberry leaves supplementation in sheep diets increased intake of the basal diets, lowered the consumption of concentrate and an increased income.
Saponins naturally occur as secondary compounds in many plants. Saponins are found in forages (Yucca schidigera and Quillaja saponaria, Enterolobium cyclocarpum and Sesbania sesban) and in fruits (Sapindus saponaria, Sapindus rarak), and these saponines are toxic to rumen protozoa. This could improve ruminant productivity, depending on the diet and level of the saponins involved. Methanol extract of pods of Acacia concinna and ethanol extracts of Sapindus mukorossi, have been shown to inhibit rumen protozoa in vitro (Patra et al., 2006a; Agarwal et al., 2006), which was attributed to the presence of saponins. Supplementation of pericarps of the fruit of Sapindus saponaria in sheep inhibited rumen protozoa, stimulated bacterial and fungal growth and dry matter degradation (Diaz et al., 1994). Ciliated protozoa are primarily responsible for the substantial turnover of bacterial protein. As a consequence, nitrogen retention is improved by defaunation. It is generally agreed that removing or suppressing protozoa would result in increased ruminant performance, particularly on low-protein diets. The use of essential oil as feed additive in the diet of ruminants could be beneficial by modifying the protein digestion in the rumen.
In some animal feeding trials, the efficiency of microbial protein synthesis in sheep receiving alfalfa hay saponins and Yucca schidigera in cattle was decreased, because the growth of bacteria and protozoa was depressed (Lu and Jorgensen, 1987; Goetsch and Owen, 1985). It seems that the effect of saponins is dependant on the diet. Gas and total VFA production from barley grain were increased by Yucca schidigera, whereas, these were reduced from alfalfa hay (Wang et al., 2000a, b). Inclusion of Enterolobium cyclocarpum increased the rate of body weight gain in sheep by 24% (Leng et al., 1992) and 44% (Navas-Camacho et al., 1993) and wool growth by 27% (Leng et al., 1992), this being attributed to a decrease in protozoa. However, water washings of mahua (Bassia latifolium), which almost completely removed saponins, in the diet of crossbred calves did not affect the growth and nutrient utilization (Joshi et al., 1989). It appears that various saponins have different responses. Therefore, there is a need to identify the saponins that are beneficial for ruminal manipulation and hence ruminant production.
Tannins are the polyphenolic polymers distributed in many plants. A number of forages such as sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia), Sericea Lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata), Lotus pedunculatus (lotus), and Lotus corniculatus (Birdsfoot trefoil) contain condensed tannins, which are beneficial for the rumen fermentation when present in moderate quantity (4 to 6% of the total) in the diets. However, high dietary concentrations (6-12% DM) can depress voluntary feed intake, digestive efficiency and animal productivity. Min et al. (2003) reported in their review that dietary concentration of condensed tannins, ranging from 2 to 4.5% of total dry matter, improves the efficiency of N use and increases daily weight gain in lambs on temperate fresh forages like Lotus corniculatus. However, a decrease of dry matter intake, digestibility and growth rate was obtained in sheep fed forages containing condensed tannins greater than 5.5% of DM. Wang et al. (1996a ), reported that lambs grazing Lolium corniculatus had a better wool growth and carcass gain than those grazing lucerne, which contained condensed tannins at a level of 3.4%, Lolium corniculatus fed to lactating ewes increased the secretion rates of whole milk, lactose and protein by 21, 12 and 14%, respectively, during mid- and late-lactation (Wang et al., 1996b). Feeding 7.5% tamarind seed husk, a tannin rich by-product, to cross-bred dairy cows resulted in increased body weight gain and milk protein content in mid-lactation (Bhatta et al., 2000). In addition in Paper II, the results showed that mangosteen peel supplementation tended to increase milk yield and FCM with addition of sunflower oil and coconut oil. Ramirez-Restrepo et al. (2005a,b), reported higher growth, reduced parasite burden, improved reproductive performance and wool production in lambs grazing Lolium corniculatus when compared to a perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne)/white clover (Trifoliumrepens) pasture. One of the reasons for these effects could be an increased metabolizable protein supply, from the protein-binding action of condensed tannins in the rumen when animals are fed a diet with highly degradable protein.
In addition, tannins have been found to decrease methane production, which is beneficial for sparing of energy loss as methane. Many types of forages known to contain condensed tannins have been shown to decrease methane production both in vivo and in vitro. Tannins present in Callindra calothyrus reduced nutrient degradation and methane release per gram of organic matter degraded in in vitro experiments with rumen simulation technique (RUSITEC) apparatus (Hess et al., 2003). Reduced methane production was also observed in RUSITEC as the proportion of incubated Onobrychis viciifolia was increased (McMahon et al., 1999). Woodward et al. (2002) investigated the feeding of sulla (Hedysarium coronarium) on methane emission and milk yield in Friesian and Jersey dairy cows. Cows grazing on sulla had higher daily dry matter intake and daily milk solids production than those grazing on perennial ryegrass pasture. Total daily methane emission was similar. However, cows fed sulla produced less methane per kg DM intake and per kg milk solids yield. Similar trends in methane emission and milk production have been observed in sheep fed on lotus silage (Woodward et al., 2001). There was also a 16% reduction in methane production in lambs fed on Lolium pedunculatus, which is due to the present of condensed tannins (Waghorn et al., 2002). Other condensed tannins contained in the forage Sericea lespedeza (17.7% CT) decreased methane emission (7.4 vs. 10.6 g/d and 6.9 vs. 16.2 g/kg DMI for Sericea lespedeza and crabgrass/tall fescue, respectively) in Angora goats (Puchala et al., 2005). Methanol extract of seed pulp of Terminalia chebula, which contains a substantial amount of phenolic compounds, reduces methane production and inhibits rumen protozoa (Patra et al., 2006b). Similarly, methanol extract of Populus deltoids leaves decreased methane production in in vitro (Patra et al., 2006c). Results indicated that CT action on methanogenesis can be attributed to indirect effects via reduced hydrogen production (and presumably reduced forage digestibility) and via direct inhibitory effects on methanogens. In Paper II, local plants containing condensed tannins, especially from MSP supplementation decreased protozoal population and reduced methane production. The results were found to be similar to those reported above.
Since, MSP contain both condensed tannins and crude saponins, it is therefore a useful animal feed supplement. Condensed tannins act to protect protein from microbial degradation, thus increasing the amount of un-degraded protein entering the small intestine (protein can be digested in the lower gut) and decreasing methane production, which is beneficial for reducing the energy loss in animal feeds as methane. Crude saponins act to reduce protozoa and increase bacterial populations, and have been found to have the potential to improve protein flow from the rumen by suppressing protozoal action. It appeared that MSP could be used as potentially valuable defaunating sources for ruminants, especially to improve rumen ecology, and their productivity.
Voluntary dry matter intake (VDMI) is fundamentally important in nutrition because it establishes the amount of available nutrients to an animal for health and production. Actual or accurately estimated DMI is important for the formulation of diets to prevent underfeeding or overfeeding of nutrients and to promote efficient nutrient use. Underfeeding of nutrients restricts production and can affect the health of an animal, while overfeeding of nutrients increases feed costs, can result in excessive excretion of nutrients into the environment, and at excessively high amounts could be toxic or cause adverse health effects. Many factors affect VDMI, namely the appetite of the animal, which varies according to the animal itself (age, physiological stage, former nutritional status, etc. (NRC, 2001), the environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, etc.) under which the animal is kept (Holter and Urban, 1992; Holter et al., 1997), the specific characteristics of the feed which would limit ruminant feed intake, (NRC, 2001), NDF (Allen, 2000), fat and energy (Mertens, 1987; NRC, 1989; Smith et al., 1993), CP (Allen, 2000 ) or forage to concentrate ratio (Llamas-Lamas and Cambs, 1991; NRC, 2001). The voluntary intake of feed depends essentially on the rate of degradation of digestible matter of feed into particles of a size small enough to enable their passage from the reticulo-rumen to the lower gut. Feeds low in digestibility are thought to place constraints on VDMI because of their slow clearance from the rumen and passage through the digestive tract. The reticulo-rumen and possibly the abomasum have stretch and touch receptors in their walls that negatively impact DMI as the weight and volume of digesta accumulate (Allen, 1996). For digestibility, there are several factors limiting complete digestion; the most important factor is the chemistry of the feed, which relates to microbial activity, especially in roughages.
Roughage is a bulky feed that is higher in fiber, containing more than 18% crude fiber on a DM basis and/or of low digestibility. There is a decrease in the proportion of CP and increase in the concentration of cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin, which are normally associated with a depression in DM digestibility. The cell wall content and the magnitude and nature of lignification of these cell walls are amongst the most important factors which govern the degradability and the rate of passage of forage. The higher neutral-detergent fiber (NDF) fraction, and generally low rates of digestion, are considered to be the primary dietary factors associated with the fill effect. This was also found in Paper I. The result showed that Plia farn leaf is low in crude protein (CP), and lower in neutral-detergent fiber (NDF), which was highest in DM and OM digestibility. Roughage intake depends on its quality, cow factors, and concentrate levels. It is thought that generally, milking cows can consume roughage from 1.8 to 2.2% of their body weight. It is suggested that roughage DMI is related to NDF content. Roughage NDF intake in mid-lactation is about 0.9% of body weight. The results in Paper II, showed that roughage DMI, and NDF intakes were higher than typical intake levels for lactating dairy cows of varying body weights, as given by NRC (1989), and as discussed above.
The higher levels of tannins in roughage may reduce cell wall digestibility by binding bacterial enzymes and/or forming indigestible complexes with cell-wall carbohydrates (Reed et al., 1990). As shown in Paper I, that DM and OM degradabilities of MSP were characterized by a slow rate of degradation as compared to other feed resources. Condensed tannins could facilitate the by-pass of protein that might otherwise be lost through microbial deamination in the rumen (Barry et al., 1986; Tanner et al., 1994). This rumen by-pass is made possible by reactive components of CTs, which complex with soluble proteins, making them insoluble at rumen pH (pH 5.8–6.8) but soluble and released at the more extreme pH conditions found in the abomasum (pH 2.5–3.5) and small intestine (pH 7.5–8.5) (Barry and Manley, 1984; Wanapat, 2001). This process increases the absorption of essential amino acids in the small intestine (Waghorn et al., 1987).
Fat is an energy dense nutrient. Therefore feeding supplemental fat to lactating dairy cows has been of interest for many years. Reviews of experiments using supplemental fat for lactating cows began very early in modern animal husbandry, the first appearing in 1907 (Kellner as cited by Sundstol, 1974). Fats (concentrated energy sources) can be incorporated into the diet of cows in early postpartum in order to try to minimize the differences between energy intake and energy output. Absorption of total fatty acids by the ruminant is linear up to 1.2 kg/day (Staples et al., 1993) which is about 6% of DMI.
Adding fat to dairy cattle diets could be a way to meet energy nutrient requirements of high milk yields without sacrificing fiber intake. Feeding fat for dairy cows can improve reproductive performance, increase milk yield (Amaral et al., 1997; Avila et al., 2000; Ruppert et al., 2004) as well as increase milk fat and long-chain fatty acid content in milk (Aldrich et al., 1997). However, adding fat may also decrease ruminal fermentation and digestibility of fiber (Palmquist and Jenkins, 1980; Chalupa et al., 1984, 1986) and so contribute to rumen fill and decrease the rate of passage. Allen (2000) also indicated that fats may contribute to decreased DMI through actions on gut hormones, oxidation of fat in the liver and the general acceptability of fat sources by cattle. Fat is rapidly hydrolyzed in the rumen and the resultant long chain fatty acids are absorbed onto the fiber, which decreases its accessibility to microbial attack or can have a direct toxic effect on the ruminal microorganisms and hence reduce fiber digestibility (Jenkins, 1993; Leng, 1987).
The limit of fat supplementation is less than 10% of dairy rations. Schneider et al. (1988) reported that a normal diet contains ~3-4 % fat, but this can be increased to 7-8 % of total diet dry matter. However, large quantities of supplemental fat can depress ruminal fermentation of fiber. Palmquist and Conrad (1978) and Coppock and Wilks (1991) suggested an unprotected fat limit of no more than 4-5% of DM or no more than 7-8% of total crude fat. Many different types of supplemental fat have been fed to lactating cows under experimental conditions. Source of fat supplementation can be of animal origin (tallow, grease, etc), plant oils (soybean oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, coconut oil, etc), oil seeds (cottonseeds, soybeans, etc), and high fat by-products such as residues from food processing plants (Chantaprasarn and Wanapat, 2005). The fatty acid makeup of these fat sources varies widely. Coppock and Wilks (1991) specified the fatty acid profile of many of the commonly used fats. Many of the whole oil seeds and unprocessed vegetable oils contain a large proportion of long chain, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) such as linoleic acid (C18:2). The rendered fats such as tallow and yellow grease contain a large proportion of the monounsaturated fatty acid, oleic acid (C18:1). Tallow can vary greatly in the ratio of saturated to unsaturated fatty acids and in proportion of linoleic acid (range of 2 to 8.5%).
Unfortunately, most published studies in which tallow was fed did not report the fatty acid profile of the tallow source. Granular fats, such as calcium soaps of fatty acids and prilled fats contain mainly the saturated fats, palmitic and stearic acids. Saturated fatty acids are more digestible in ruminants than in nonruminants (Palmquist and Jenkins, 1980), and can be utilized as a dietary fat supplement to eliminate the protozoa population and have the potential to improve DM intake, digestibility and animal growth performance. Unsaturated fatty acids are abundant in the diet of dairy cows, but largely disappear as the feed material passes through the rumen of the cow and the unsaturated fatty acids are converted to saturated fatty acids by the fermentative microbes. Ruminal microbes can alter the majority of the dietary unsaturated fatty acids by conversion to saturated fatty acids through a process called biohydrogenation. At the same time, biohydrogenation can produce a number of trans fatty acids. Pilajun et al. (2005) have studied the effect of combined coconut oil and sunflower oil as sources of saturated fatty acids on rumen fermentation and rumen microorganisms in dairy steers, and the results showed that the greatest DM and NDF digestibility was obtained at the ratio of 50% coconut oil and 50% sunflower oil supplementation. In Paper II, the combination of 3% sunflower oil and 3% coconut oil was mixed with concentrate for dairy cattle. Total crude fat in the concentrate was not higher than 7%, as suggested above. Digestibility, milk yield, and milk fat contents tended to be enhanced, however the results were not significantly different.
Sunflower oil is a source of fat that can be used as a supplement. It contains 12% saturated fatty acids and 88% unsaturated fatty acids (Grant and Kubik, 1990). Palmquist (1988) reported sunflower oil as consisting of 8% palmitic (C16:0), 3% stearic (C18:0), 13.5% oleic (C18:1), 75% linoleic (C18:2) and 0.5% linolenic (C18:3) acid. Sunflower oil is rich in oleic (45.3%) and linoleic (39.8%) acid (NRC, 2001). Petit et al. (2004) indicated that feeding TMR consisting of whole sunflower seed (6.7% crude fat) did not alter DMI and DM, CP, NDF and ADF digestibilities. Similarly, Kalscheur et al. (1997) and Sackmann et al. (2003) reported supplementation of 2 or 4% and 3.7% sunflower oil respectively did not alter DMI and apparent ruminal DM, NDF and ADF digestibilities. Supplementation of sunflower oil to dairy cows has been reported to lower the milk fat and reduce milk fat production (Kalscheur et al., 1997). However, sunflower oil can be used as a dietary fat supplement to increase milk yield and the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids in milk fat. In addition, feeding sunflower oil resulted in increased concentrations of trans10, cis12 C18:2 and cis9, trans11 C18:2 in rumen (Loor et al., 2004). Chanthaprasan and Wanapat (2005) have found that sunflower oil can be used at 2.5 % in a cassava hay based-diet with greatest profitable advantages in income over feed, milk yield and composition, especially CLA content.
Coconut oil consists of highly saturated fat (over 90 percent) and is rich in lauric acid. Saturated fatty acids are more digestible in ruminants than in nonruminants (Palmquist and Jenkins, 1980), and Scientific Psychic (2005) reported that coconut oil contains 8% unsaturated fatty acids, including 6% oleic (C18:1), and 2% linoleic (C18:2) acid. This oil contains 92% saturated fatty acids, including 6% capric (C10:0), 47% lauric (C12:0), 18% myristic (C14:0), 9% palmitic (C16:0), and 3% stearic (C18:0) acid. In contrast, coconut oil can be utilized as a dietary fat supplement to eliminate the protozoal population and has the potential to improve DM intake, digestibility and animal growth performance. In addition, with a reduced the protozoal population there will be an increase in fungal zoospores and bacteria. However, Sutton et al., (1983) and Dong et al. (1997) have found that addition of coconut oil tended to decrease diet digestibility. Jordan et al. (2004) also reported a linear decrease in digestibility in response to increasing levels of coconut oil, although no significant effect on digestibility was observed up to and including 250 g of CO/d (2.7% DMI). Medium-chain saturated fatty acids are known as antibacterial agents, and in particular, lauric acid (LA) has bactericidal activity against gram-positive bacteria (Petschow et al., 1996). The LA-rich oils such as coconut oil and palm kernel oil inhibit protozoa (Newbold and Chamberlain, 1988; Matsumoto et al., 1991), and reduce methane production (Blaxter and Czerkawski, 1966; Dong et al., 1997; Machmüller et al., 1998; Machmüller & Kreuzer, 1999; Dohme et al., 2000, 2001; Soliva et al., 2003; Hristov et al., 2004a) and ammonia concentration (Dohme et al., 1999) in the rumen. In addition, coconut oil increased propionate production in a continuous culture with a high-grain diet (Dong et al., 1997). These changes were similar to those observed when ionophores were added. Meanwhile, there are several reports describing no effects of coconut oil and free LA on propionate production (Machmüller et al., 1998; Dohme et al., 2000, 2001; Soliva et al., 2003; Hristov et al., 2004b).
The trial involving dairy cattle owned by farmers in improving dairy production through the use of mangosteen peel, and vegetable oils supplementation, was carried out in Muang district, Khon Kaen province, in Northeast Thailand. The farm owners and 4 farm workers participated in the trial (Paper II) and demonstration of the local feed resources with mangosteen peel and vegetable oil (combined of 3% sunflower oil and 3% coconut oil) supplementation. The researcher had to stay with the farmers during the experimental period to discuss and demonstrate all activities. This offered a real practical perspective and researcher-to-farmer interaction. As a result of this participation and demonstration scheme, the farmers could learn more effectively and accepted the technology more readily, especially the practical details of feed preparation, feeding method and feed preservation. Strategic supplementation of these supplements resulted in improved milk yield and milk quality, overall condition of the cows and higher economical returns through increased productivity. Based on this research demonstration of mangosteen peel and vegetable oils, supplements were shown to enhance the productivity of the farmer’s cows. On-farm research with small-holder farmers showed promising results with respect to the establishment and development of local feed resources with vegetable oils on farm. However, the establishment of local feed resources on farm requires more attention and warrants a wider expansion among dairy farmers, since it could be easily produced and be sustainable as on farms trials.
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