Ground Wheat Grain for Midlactation Cows: Challenging a Common Wisdom

Table 4

Treatment effects on blood metabolites, fecal and urine pH, and total tract apparent DM and NDF digestibility in cows fed either finely or coarsely ground wheat grain (GW) at higher and lower inclusion rates.

	Grinding extent (GE)
GW level (GL) %	Coarser		Finer			𝑃 value
	10%	20%	10%	20%	SE	GE	GL	GE × GL
NDF digestibility, %	34.8	32.0	32.1	31.9	1.10	0.09	0.07	0.11
DM digestibility, %	62.1	60.7	61.0	60.4	1.04	0.34	0.27	0.56
Glucose, mg/dL	51.1	51.6	50.8	51.1	1.70	0.84	0.81	0.96
Total protein, g/dL	8.5	8.2	8.6	8.4	0.08	0.38	0.03	0.42
Albumin, g/dL	3.84	3.75	3.83	3.68	0.07	0.42	0.04	0.56
Globulin, g/dL	4.62	4.46	4.64	4.67	0.14	0.23	0.50	0.32
BHBA, mol/L	0.53	0.64	0.55	0.64	0.07	0.74	0.01	0.71
Fecal pH	6.73	6.77	6.71	6.77	0.03	0.74	0.10	0.66
Urine pH	8.11	8.08	8.09	8.03	0.04	0.45	0.33	0.70