Corn bran versus corn grain at 2 levels of forage: Intake, apparent digestibility, and production responses by lactating dairy cows

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of substituting corn bran (CB) for dried ground corn grain (CG) in the nonforage portion of high-forage (HF) and low-forage (LF) diets. Twelve multiparous and 12 primiparous Holsteins were assigned to 4 diets using six 4 ×  Latin squares with 3-wk periods. Forage was 64 or 38% of the total mixed ration (% of dry matter). On a dry matter basis, the HFCG diet had 20% CG, the LFCG diet had 39% CG, the HFCB diet had 19% CB, and the LFCB diet had 38% CB. Digestible organic matter intake (OMI) and milk energy yield were lower for CB compared with CG within forage level. Digestible OMI was greater (1.9 kg/d) for the LFCG compared with the HFCG treatment. When CB replaced forage (LFCB vs. HFCB), digestible OMI was not different but milk energy yield was greater with the LFCB diet. The LFCG diet supported the greatest milk, milk protein, and milk energy yield. Decreased concentration of milk protein and increased concentration of milk urea nitrogen when feeding CB compared with CG suggests that lack of fermentable energy in the CB diets may have limited rumen microbial protein synthesis. Total substitution of CG with CB in the nonforage portion did not support maximum milk production, even when forage was reduced at the same time (HFCG vs. LFCB). Predicted neutral detergent fiber (NDF) digestibility at 1 times maintenance, based on chemical analysis of the individual feeds, was 22 percentage units greater for CB than for the forage mix (68.9 vs. 46.9%). In vitro NDF digestibility (30 h) was 19.4 percentage units greater for CB than for the forage mix (68.9 vs. 49.5%). However, in vivo NDF digestibility of the diet when CB replaced forage (HFCB vs. LFCB) was similar (44.1 vs. 44.5%). Similarly, predicted total digestible nutrients at the production level of intake, based on chemical analysis, were greater for the CB treatments and lower for the CG treatments than those observed in vivo.