Guests: Omid McDonald, Vodkow; Andres Ortega & Dr. Mike Van Amburgh, Cornell University; Matheus Santos & Dr. Eduardo Ribeiro, University of Guelph; Dr. Faith Reyes, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Mariana Marinho and Dr. José Santos, University of Florida; and Dr. Alex Tebbe, Purina Mills

Today’s episode was filmed at the American Dairy Science Association Annual Meeting in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Joining us are researchers with abstracts of interest chosen by the Balchem technical team.

The first guest is Omid McDonald, founder of Vodcow, the chosen drink at tonight’s pubcast. Vodcow is made with a dairy byproduct called milk permeate. The sugar is fermented and turned into alcohol, with which they make vodka and blend it with Canadian Cream. (4:11) 

Our second guest is Andres Ortega and Dr. Mike Van Amburgh from Cornell University. In Andres's research, to represent mp, they tried to show metabolizing all proteins and break that down into the individual essential and nonessential amino acids. They created two diets; one that met all of the MP requirements and one that didn’t. Based on the difference of MP there, they knew how much they would infuse. (12:07) 

Andre's presentation is titled:  Abomasal infusion of essential and non-essential amino acids to evaluate energy and amino acid utilization, productive efficiencies, and metabolism in lactating dairy cattle. 

Next in our lineup are Matheus Santos and Dr. Eduardo Ribeiro from the University of Guelph. Matheus’ research found that lower feed intake and greater body weight had a less positive energy balance. A negative energy balance can lead to high immunosuppression and development of clinical disease. (24:14) 

Matheus' poster is titled: Prepartum feed intake level is associated with transition metabolism and subsequent milk production in dairy cows. 

Our third guest is Dr. Faith Reyes from the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Faith said that in dairies, we would like to see decreased competition. Previous literature has shown a linear relationship when you increase the stocking density leads to increased competition. In her research, Dr. Faith found that there was the most competition at a two-to-one stocking density. (35:02) 

Faith’s research is titled: Individual feeding consistency across stocking densities and feed efficiency in lactating cows. 

Joining us now is Mariana Marinho and Dr. Jose Santos from the University of Florida. Mariana mentioned that more efficient cows have improved rumination per kilogram of intake. More efficient cows also have lower pH and more concentration of ammonia nitrogen. With the findings from her research, Mariana suggests that the site of digestion plays a more important role in differentiating more efficient versus less efficient cows. (52:45) 

Mariana’s presentation is titled: Associations between residual feed intake(RFI) and digestibility or hepatic mitochondrial respiration in Holstein cows. 

Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the additional highlights from the 2023 ADSA Annual Meeting in future podcast episodes. 

Lastly, we are joined by Alex Tebbe from Purina Mills. Alex is focused on transition cows, both the dry period and fresh period and how they are so influential to the cow’s long-term performance. Alex said that we could hone in on the nutrition of dry cows and fresh cows to produce a lot of milk in the future. (59:52)

Alex’s presentation is titled: Dairy nutrition to improve feed utilization - Recognizing the contributions of ADSA Fellow Dr. Bill Weiss beyond prevention of metabolic diseases: Feeding transition dairy cows for optimal performance. 

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