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Urine pH shows whether an anionic close-up diet has actually shifted the cow's acid-base status. For Holsteins, a group average of about 5.5–6.0 indicates full acidification. Above 7.0, the diet is having little effect.

It does not measure blood calcium, and one cow tells you little. Sample 8–12 cows at the same time relative to feeding and look at the spread as well as the average.

Answered by Tolga AkayCopy link

Cows pick the finer, more palatable part of the TMR first. Long, dry hay or straw is easy to push aside, especially when the ration is dry or chop length is uneven.

They then eat more concentrate early in the day than intended, which raises acidosis risk. Rising upper-screen values in the refusals confirm sorting.

Leonardi & Armentano, 2003. J. Dairy Sci. 86:557–564

Answered by Tolga AkayCopy link

In corn grain, starch granules sit inside a protein matrix of prolamins (zein) that limits microbial access. During fermentation, proteolysis gradually breaks this matrix down.

As a result, ruminal starch digestibility of corn silage and high-moisture corn keeps rising over several months of storage. A ration balanced at silo opening can become more fermentable later.

Hoffman et al., 2011. J. Dairy Sci. 94:2465–2474

Answered by Tolga AkayCopy link

A common inclusion is about 0.75% of ration DM, roughly 180–200 g per cow per day at 25 kg DMI.

The response is largest in corn silage-based, high-starch rations with limited effective fiber, and often small in hay-based rations. A buffer supports rumen pH but does not fix a ration that is short of effective fiber.

Answered by Tolga AkayCopy link