Keywords

Dairy Cattle; Cereal Grain; Dairy Industry; Philosophy.

Intuitions and Discussion

Risks from metabolic disorders such as subacute rumen acidosis and related complexities including but not limited to rumen malfunction, hepatic and systemic inflammation, immune deficiencies, and depressed productivity, increasingly challenge the sustainability of the global dairy industry [1- 5]. However, limited pragmatic efforts have been made to address the challenge in a workable sense. For instance, this crucial issue has not been addressed in the most recent report of NRC [6].

Processing techniques and methods have been debatefully discussed to optimize starch digestion and glucose utilization in high-merit dairy cattle [6-15]. However, only recently, attention has realistically been paid into the fact that discussing on processing per se when suboptimal amount of starchy grains are included in commercial rations, is just not more hopeful than futile [7-14]. Unfortunately, the increasing trends of modernization in global dairy industries, particularly in more developed regions, have unwisely led farmers and managers to recklessly increase dietary inclusion rates of starch grains (especially from highly degradable ones e.g., differently processed barley and wheat and extensively steam-processed corn and sorghum) to maintain production at illogical unhealthy levels [15-17]. Such efforts have not been futuristic.

In view of the increased world human population and food-water crisis in many regions, cereals must be optimally saved for optimal human nutrition. Mismanagement in grain feeding to livestock of especially ruminants must cease and efforts ought to be made to avoid grain overfeeding that does not only do any good to animal production but it also harms animal health and farm economy and environmental sustainability. This is not what global endeavours for supplying safe and secure food seek.

Therefore, the global dairy industry is warned against the unnecessary attention into the type and extent of processing cereal grains instead of optimizing their dietary inclusion rates. Simply, the problems that the current dairy enterprises are suffering from occur as a result of feeding just wrong amount and often overly excessive quantity of grains to high-merit dairy cattle. Following such reckless substandard must cease. Also, global awareness on the essentiality of feeding just enough cereal starch even to very high-producing dairy cattle must grow.

Pragmatic Word

Transitory improvements in production must indeed not be taken for granted at the expense of compromised longevity in quantitative cereal feeding to dairy cattle.

Acknowledgment

The Iran’s Ministry of Science Research and Technology, National Elite Foundation, and University of Zanjan are gratefully acknowledged for supporting the author’s global programs of optimizing science edification in the new millennium.