Ground Wheat Grain for Midlactation Cows: Challenging a Common Wisdom

Table 2

Treatment effects on DMI and milk parameters of cows fed either finely or coarsely ground wheat grain (GW) at higher and lower inclusion rates.

	Grinding extent (GE)
GW level (GL) %	Coarser		Finer			𝑃 value
	10%	20%	10%	20%	SE	GE	GL	GE × GL
DMI, kg/d	19.7	19.4	20.1	19.4	0.22	0.22	<0.01	0.25
NEL intake, Mcal/d	31.6	31.4	32.2	31.4	0.35	0.22	0.07	0.26
Milk yield, kg/d	25.4	25.1	25.1	25.5	0.44	0.83	0.99	0.28
Milk energy density^1, Mcal/kg	0.700	0.695	0.696	0.699	0.01	0.97	0.88	0.58
Milk energy yield^1, Mcal/d	17.69	17.30	17.50	17.68	0.42	0.75	0.72	0.34
Milk energy yield: DMI	0.90	0.90	0.87	0.92	0.02	0.72	0.20	0.12
Milk fat, %	3.42	3.37	3.52	3.39	0.11	0.39	0.26	0.60
Fat yield, kg/d	0.86	0.83	0.87	0.86	0.03	0.37	0.20	0.78
Milk protein, %	3.07	3.06	3.16	3.07	0.08	0.43	0.37	0.45
Protein yield, kg/d	0.78	0.77	0.79	0.78	0.02	0.35	0.41	0.98
Milk lactose, %	5.54	5.56	5.51	5.58	0.08	0.87	0.50	0.63
Lactose yield, kg/d	1.40	1.39	1.39	1.42	0.04	0.80	0.81	0.50
Milk SNF, %	9.77	9.71	9.66	9.75	0.10	0.56	0.83	0.30
SNF yield, kg/d	2.48	2.43	2.44	2.48	0.05	0.89	0.90	0.25
Total solids, %	13.39	13.02	13.27	13.33	0.24	0.57	0.36	0.21
TS yield, kg/d	3.39	3.24	3.34	3.37	0.09	0.47	0.38	0.14
Milk fat %: protein %	1.11	1.10	1.11	1.11	0.02	0.81	0.41	0.77

¹Calculated based on milk components [13]: NE_L (Mcal/kg) = (0.0929 × fat %) + (0.0547 × crude protein %) + (0.0395 × lactose %).