The Energy Challenge in High-Producing and Newly Calved Cows

As you know, in high-producing and newly calved cows, we often face an energy challenge. This is because during this period, the animal requires a lot of energy, and due to the rumen's volume, it cannot consume large amounts of feed needed for milk production and to come out of a negative energy balance. Therefore, it is essential to use materials in the cow's diet that have high energy content in a small volume. One of these food materials is full-fat soybean products.

Full-fat soybeans contain about 18% fat and about 34% crude protein; of this protein, 60% is RUP (rumen-undegradable protein). Additionally, the bypass protein in full-fat soybeans has the highest digestibility in the intestine. Furthermore, soy is the highest quality plant protein. Depending on the other components in the diet, full-fat soybeans can be used in the diet of dairy cows and newly calved cows as a source of protein and energy, ranging from approximately 3% to 10%. It is advisable to gradually introduce this food material into the animal's diet. The adaptation period for this product in the animal's diet is about 20 days.