Nutrition

Animal Nutrition and Feeding

• Research on the changes in metabolic parameters of blood and milk during the periods of negative energy balance, ruminal degradability of different protein sources and the effect on the digestibility of fibrous matter, and feeding behaviour of dairy cattle has been carried out by MSc and PhD students.
• In collaboration with the Bio-Competence Centre of Healthy Dairy Products several applied research projects have been carried out, including studies focusing on:

• Suitability of crude glycerol as animal feed – either as a glycogenic precursor in feed during the period of negative energy balance or as a substitution for starch.
• Effect of the source of fat on the yield, composition and renneting properties of milk as well as the sensory and rheological characteristics and oxidative parameters of cheese. 
• Effect of silage additives on feed intake and lactational performance of dairy cows.
• Renneting and metabolomics.
• Performance testing of beef-type bulls.
• Prepartum anionic supplementation of diets in dairy cows.

• Comprehensive study of feeding, reproduction, welfare and behavior of cows, undertaken by the researchers of the departments of feeding, reproductive biology, animal health and environment  that also involves specialists of other areas.

The dairy unit is equipped with a system of pedometers TrackACow (ENGS Corporation, Israel) to keep track of how active the cows are (number of steps, lying/standing ratio), which also records the time an animal spends at the trough. The latter enables researchers to better evaluate the feed intake of the cows of the robotic milking group.  The system is being used for collecting data in the framework of the Project IUT8-1.