Fat Supplementation And Conception Rates

• According to research, it is shown that fat supplements benefited conception rates of lactating dairy cows.

• Average improvement seems to be 21% points.

• With that being said, this does not mean feeding these fat supplements will increase herd conception rate by 21% points.

• If fat supplement is to be beneficial to the farm, it is more likely that it will be less than 10% points.

Fish Meal And Conception Rates

• Although main nutrient in fish meal is protein instead of fat, there has been growing evidence that oils unique to fish improves pregnancy in several studies.

• The inclusion of fish meal in diet is usually around 3 - 7% of DM.

• In some studies, fish meal partially replace soybean meal, thus reducing excessive intake of ruminally degradable protein.

• Hence, it is possible that improved conception rates is due to elimination of negative effect of excessive intake of ruminally degradable protein on conception.

• However, there are studies where concentration of ruminally undegradable protein was kept constant between dietary treatments, cows fed with fish meal still have better conception rate.

• This could be due to the unique omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in fish meal.

Oil Seeds And Conception Rates

• There hasn't been much studies on oil seeds and their effects on conception rates.

• Oil seeds may be a good candidate as they can deliver key fatty acids past the rumen.

• However, many oil seeds contain more than 50% linoleic acid. Delivery of linoleic acid past the rumen to small intestine is not the same for all oil seeds.

• If the increase in linoleic acid concentration of milk is used as an indicator, soybean appears to be the most effective while cottonseeds seem to be the most ineffective.

• The processing of whole seeds also influence their ability to delivery unsaturated fat past the rumen.

• Roasting of soybeans and sunflowers seemed to increase the delivery of linoleic acid.

• As for linolenic acid, whole flaxseeds fed about 10% of diet can delivery some of its omega-3 fatty acid to the tissues.