The Importance of Sugars in Ruminant Nutrition: How They Stimulate Good Fungi, Improve Digestibility, and Increase Milk Yield and Protein Production in Grass Silage Rations While Avoiding Rumen Acidosis

2023-05-01 13:39:37

Sugars are an important source of energy for humans and animals. Too much is not good, but neither is too little. Due to the sweet taste, sugars give flavor to the ration, but sugars also have an important function in the rumen of ruminants during digestion.

Stimulate good fungi

The most difficult to digest in the rumen are the cell walls (NDF). Certain strains of fungi live in the rumen and play an important role in the digestion of these cell walls. Fungi open the fibers, as it were, making the cell contents available. Certain sugars stimulate the growth of these fungi, which has a positive effect on cell wall digestion.

Sugar and rumen acidosis?

Too much sugar is often associated with rumen acidosis. This is not always justified, because the breakdown of unstable starch lowers the pH in the rumen much faster than sugars. By replacing part of the starch in the ration with sugars, we will have better control over the rumen pH and the digestibility of fibers will therefore improve.

Research: more milk and higher contents

Several studies have been done over the years that have shown the value of adding sugar to rations. Most of these studies have been carried out by adding molasses or sucrose to the ration. In several of these studies replace part of the unstable starch with the sugars, keeping the remaining carbohydrate content (OK) constant. Particularly in grass silage-richer rations, the addition of readily available carbohydrates in the form of sugars appears to increase the flow of microbial proteins and non-ammonia nitrogen to the small intestine. This results in a higher milk yield and a positive effect on the contents.

When to feed extra sugars

Particularly at grass silage with a high proportion of soluble protein it may be wise to add some extra sugars to the ration, especially to stimulate microbial protein production (DVE).

With sugary silage (>100 g sugar), care must be taken when adding sugars to the ration. Cell wall-degrading bacteria like to use amino acids as an N source. If these are insufficiently present in the rumen, they use ammonia (NH3) which is basic, which causes the rumen to acidify more quickly.

Would you like more information or advice about adding sugars to the ration? Feel free to contact Speerstra Feed Ingredients via 0514-569001 / [e-mail] / www.speerstra.com