US (SD): Are barley sprouts good for dairy cattle?

Sprouted barley grown indoors without soil can provide livestock with tasty greens year-round, but few scientific studies have been done on these hydroponic feeds, according to South Dakota State University assistant dairy science professor Jill Anderson. She and doctoral student Rhea Lawrence are evaluating the impact of integrating hydroponic feed into the diets of dairy heifers and lactating cows.

“This feed is pretty palatable. Both heifers and lactating cows tend to sort for it, even though we try to mix it in,” said Anderson, whose research focuses on ruminant nutrition. The 6-week feeding trial for 20 lactating dairy cows, which was completed in early July, focuses on milk production, while the 12-week feeding trial for 24 dairy heifers examines growth performance.

The research is supported by HydroGreen Global Technologies, which delivered sprouted barley each day to the SDSU Dairy Research and Training facility during the feeding trials.

Most of the information on hydroponic feeds, in general, is anecdotal, according to Anderson. “Not many controlled studies with two treatment groups have been done. That’s why [Hydrogreen] came to us for independent verification regarding the new feed.”



For half of the animals in each study, the researchers replaced a portion of the ground corn and soybean meal in a typical diet with hydroponic feed.

The researchers performed a lab analysis on the feed, taking out the moisture and then calculating the other nutrients. “Then we take it back to the farm and recalculate it on an as fed basis,” Anderson said. That substitution amounted to 8 percent of the ration figured on a dry-matter basis for the lactating cows and 14 percent for the heifers.

Looking at milk production
Lactating cows typically eat about 100 to 150 pounds of a total mixed ration, she explained. The cows in the treatment group consumed 20 to 30 pounds of hydroponic feed. Feed intake for both groups was similar on a dry-matter basis.

“Preliminary results show that lactating cows on hydroponic feed produced similar amounts of milk,” Anderson said. However, there were weeks during the hottest parts of the summer in July when the results were different. These will be analyzed along with the environmental conditions, Lawrence explained.

Cows on hydroponic feed also produced milk with the same fat and protein content levels as the control group.

When the researchers asked a group of 25 volunteers to taste the milk, Anderson reported, “They couldn’t tell the difference--there were no off-flavors from the hydroponic feed.”

The researchers will also analyze fatty acid composition. “We will look at conjugated linoleic acid, omega 3, omega 6 in the milk fat,” Anderson said.

In addition, the researchers took blood and fecal samples for analysis. The fecal samples are to measure total tract digestion of nutrients and the blood samples allow the researchers to look at metabolic profiles, which indicate how the cows were partitioning energy during the trial, Anderson explained. “It all relates back to feed efficiency and nutrient utilization.”

Cows digest food through a fermentation system. “We think hydroponic feed should encourage rumen health and better pH,” Anderson said.

Maintaining a 6.0 pH in the rumen helps the cow’s digestive system break down the feed. “It keeps the microbes happier. If there are large fluctuations, those microbes don’t work as well,” she noted.



Evaluating heifer growth
Each dairy heifer began the feeding trial when she was 6 months old and completed it at 9 months old. To do this, the researchers staggered the trial start dates based on the heifer’s age.

The heifers consumed 30 to 40 pounds per day of a total mixed ration and the treatment group was eating 10 to 15 pounds of hydroponic feed per day.

To evaluate growth performance, Lawrence documented body weight and took body frame measurements, including height of hips and withers, every two weeks. “We want them to gain body weight, but we also want them to get tall,” she explained.

The feeding trials for the last group of heifers concluded in November and the researchers have begun analyzing the data and completing the laboratory analysis.

The dairy heifer research can lay some groundwork for future studies using hydroponic feed for other growing animals, such as beef cattle and sheep, according to Anderson. “We should get some baseline results that can then be applied to other livestock species.”

Source: South Dakota State University