Replacing alfalfa hay with triticale hay has minimal effects on lactation performance and nitrogen utilization of dairy cows in a semi-arid region of Mexico

In the semi-arid highlands of central Mexico, triticale (× Triticosecale L.) is emerging as an alternative, less water-demanding forage crop than alfalfa for dairy cattle. Studies reported here were aimed at evaluating triticale hay (TH) relative to alfalfa hay (AH) for lactating cow performance, apparent digestibility, N partition, and ruminal degradation kinetics of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), and neutral detergent fiber (NDF). Study 1 was conducted on a privately owned farm. Four barns were used to conduct 4 replicated 3 × 3 Latin squares (1 barn = 1 square), where each barn included 3 pens (experimental units) receiving 1 of 3 dietary treatments. Each pen had 62 Holstein dairy cows. All diets included a forage-to-concentrate ratio of 42:58 (DM basis), which is typical for intensive dairy farms of the region. Dietary treatments were formulated to replace AH with TH on a CP basis, and included (DM basis) 15.1% AH and 0% TH, 9.0% AH and 7.4% TH, and 0% AH and 16.4% TH. Diets were iso-energetic (1.64 Mcal of net energy for lactation/kg of DM) and iso-nitrogenous (17.9% CP). Pen-level DM intake and milk production were from all cows in the pen, but pen-level milk composition, apparent digestibility, and N partitioning were from 8 cows (observational units) randomly selected in each pen. Orthogonal contrasts were used to determine linear and quadratic effects of increasing TH from 0 to 7.4, and 16.4% of dietary DM. Although DM intake was not affected, there was a tendency for CP intake to decline linearly and for NDF intake to increased linearly as TH replaced AH in the diet. Milk production declined linearly by 0.077 kg/d for each additional percentage unit of TH in the diet, which amounted to a 3.5% decline when TH replaced AH entirely. However, no effect was observed on energy-corrected milk production because of a compensatory linear effect of increasing milk fat concentration with the incorporation of TH in the diet. Total-tract NDF digestibility tended to increase linearly by 18.5%, but no differences were detected for urinary urea-N excretion and for N utilization estimated as milk N/(fecal N + urinary N + milk N). Study 2 was an in situ trial conducted to determine the degradation kinetics of AH and TH used in study 1. In spite of differences in degradation kinetics parameters for DM, CP, and NDF, only NDF effective ruminal degradation tended to be greater for TH than AH. Replacing AH with TH at the level typically found in intensive dairy farms of the semi-arid regions of Mexico had minimal effects on milk production and N utilization.