Improving nutrition efficiency and milk quality in dairy production

Milk is the most nutritious single food but also a major provider of saturated fatty acids (SFA) in the UK diets. Certain SFA may increase risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and health organisations have urgently recommended substitution of dietary SFA with cis-unsaturated FA (UFA), to reduce CVD-related illness. Producing milk with more UFA and less SFA could contribute to this aim without requiring changes to consumer dietary habits. Additionally, the increasing global demand for milk and dairy products, and the competition for resources for food, feed and fuel require optimum use of resources in all aspects of dairy production. Improving feed use efficiency (FUE; more milk per given feed intake) and energy use efficiency (EUE; higher % of ingested energy retained in the body) increase farm profitability and reduce environmental footprint (lower methane emissions) of milk production.
This project will research animal, dietary, and management factors that improve Feed use efficiency energy use efficiency in dairy cows and enhance the nutritional quality of milk.
1) Investigate the effects of, and interactions between, the main dietary parameters on FUE, NUE and methane emissions.
2) Investigate the relative impact of husbandry practices (breeding, feeding, management) on FUE and milk nutritional quality at herd level.
3) Reveal how rumen microbes influence metabolic pathways related to FUE, EUE, methane emissions and milk quality under different dairy diets.