Rumen buffers: The ultimate powerhouse for cows

Using a proven buffer will play an important part in maximising the value of home-grown forages by supporting rumen health and getting more energy from the feed.

Poor forage quality could hinder performance in many dairy herds this winter, but with bought-in feed costs at record highs, farmers will look to get as much feed value as possible from home-grown forages.

Equaliser is one of the most effective rumen buffers available for dairy cows.

It is fast-acting and long-lasting with the ability to unleash buffering capacity when it is most needed and match rumen pH fluctuations after a meal. And it has a buffering capacity more than double that of sodium bicarbonate.

The graph below shows the strong buffering capacity of Equaliser over time. The blue curved area is the acid challenge of the rumen’s digestion acids. The yellow, green and red areas represent the Equaliser buffer action. This demonstrates Equaliser’s ability to sync with the rumen’s needs, and it is a unique feature of this rumen buffer.

Why use a buffer?

Buffering is essential and the ‘safety belt’ is the natural buffer in saliva.

Rumen buffers are added to the ration to boost the cow’s natural buffering capacity and safeguard the rumen environment.

Put simply, rumen buffers keep the rumen microbes happy and that means they’ll work better.

Tough, fibrous food is converted in the rumen into a much more nutritious format for the cow. These rumen microbes digest the food on the cow’s behalf.

They need to live in an environment that’s at the right temperature, with the right moisture level and pH, and with a very steady and constant stream of nutrients to work consistently.

If this is provided, these microbes will produce fermentation acids which the cow removes from her rumen and then builds into glucose for energy.

Problems can arise if the system becomes too acidic which can be a problem with low-pH silages, or very quickly digestible and starchy feeds. The microbes will reduce their activity or even die and digestion halts temporarily, reducing the energy supply to the cow.

This will reduce intakes and a drop in yield and milk solids, particularly milk fat, can follow.

Scouring and fibrous manure will be evident too because the fibre-digesting microbes are most easily affected by a low or marginal pH.

This year’s forages will present our cows with challenges if we don’t help the rumen microbes with their work.

Options

Cargill offers the popular standard Equaliser rumen buffer. It has also developed specialist Equaliser buffers to suit different situations.

Equaliser can be used in any diet and is particularly valuable where acidic or highly digestible silages are being fed.

Equaliser Fibre+ benefits systems feeding more fibrous materials such as grass silages with high fibre content, wholecrop silages or fibrous co-products.

It is proven to be very powerful in keeping acidity under control and allowing the rumen microbes to continue their job of fibre digestion.

It combines the powerful Equaliser buffer with the fermentation product Diamond V. This adds extra micronutrients that help the fibre digestion bacteria break down and release energy from cell walls in the dietary fibre.

In practical farm trials it has been shown to increase the yield of energy from forage fibre by 12% and improve milk yield by 1.34kg/cow/day.

In a herd of 100 cows this extra milk is worth €2,360/month based on a milk price of 57c/L.

We can see visible proof of its effectiveness in manure consistency. Dung from cows on diets including Equaliser Fibre+ is less fibrous, proving more has been broken down and energy has been released that can be used in milk production

Equaliser Cream suits systems using multicut silages that are typically very digestible with high oil contents, or where high oil content co-products are being fed.

It combines the strength of the Equaliser rumen buffer with added components that help normalise the oil conversion pathways.

Cream has consistently been shown to reverse a dip in milk fat in days and improve milk fats in the long term. And where it was included in rations ahead of a potential risk period, milk fat was maintained or improved.

Results from 17 farms, where Cream was introduced into the total mixed ration or concentrate part of the ration in 2021, showed a milk fat increase of 0.31% in seven days and 0.52% in a month.

With the current milk and component prices paying well, the economics of feeding Equaliser Cream is very advantageous, particularly compared with C16 fats which, based on their current prices, will only at best breakeven.

Based on a typical 2022 milk price differential for milk fat of 2.49c/L for an additional 0.41% milk fat yield from 100 cows yielding 30L/day would produce an additional €2,318 income a month.

This is a return on investment in Equaliser cream of 3.5, making the use of this specialised rumen buffer very attractive.

Action plan on-farm:

Analyse forages;
Look at how eagerly the cows are eating the forages;
Look at the results in the milk tank;
Draw conclusions – intakes will be poor and performance limited if forages are indigestible;
Choose a proven rumen buffer to increase feed value from these forages.

Application

All Equaliser rumen buffers are fed at 100-150g/head/day and are available as farm pack or in minerals