TITLE:
Evaluation of Agolin®, an Essential Oil Blend, as a Feed Additive for High Producing Cows
AUTHORS:
Peter Williams, John Clark, Kelly Bean
KEYWORDS:
Lactating Dairy Cows, Methane, Essential Oils, Feed Efficiency
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Animal Sciences,
Vol.11 No.2,
April
26,
2021
ABSTRACT: There
is a growing demand for feed additives that can not only reduce dairy enteric
methane emissions but also increase milk production and feed efficiency. Just
one product is currently commercially available which accomplishes both of
these goals. The purpose of this study was to confirm the performance benefits
of the product (Agolin?, Agolin SA, Biere, Switzerland) in high
producing mid-lactation dairy cows under United States feeding conditions. Four
matched pens of approximately 150 mid-lactation cows/pen and averaging over 50
kg of milk/cow/day were enrolled in a side-by-side study. All pens received a
common total mixed diet ad libitum, and the essential oil blend was
administered via a concentrated farm pack to provide 1 g/cow/day to cows in the
2 test pens. Milk weights were determined, and samples were collected for
compositional analysis over the last 2 days of the pretrial (May 11 and 12,
2020) and end of the trial (July 18 and 19, 2020) periods. Dry matter intake
was measured by pen daily for the last 10 days of each feeding period. Milk fat
and milk protein yields were greater (P 0.05)
for cows receiving added Agolin. There was a tendency (P = 0.06) for energy
corrected milk/dry matter intake to be greater for cows receiving the Agolin
(1.88) relative to the control diet (1.76). The trial showed that Agolin
assisted in improving production parameters of economic importance to dairy
producers.