The Influence of Dietary Characteristics on the Milk Quantity and Quality of Riverine Buffaloes: Estimate of the Energy/Protein Requirements, for a Medium-high Production, in the First Ninety Days of Lactation

The data used came from two trials undertaken under the same climatic conditions (spring-summer). In both trials pluriparious buffaloes were utilized similar in weight, body condition score, and milk production from the previous year. From the first trial the data used was from the sub-period 23–88 DIM provided by seven animals fed ad libitum with diet A (6.69 MJ/kg DM; 158.30 g/kg of crude protein) with a forage/concentrate ratio of 48/52. From the second trial the data used was from the sub-period 33–90 DIM provided by seven animals fed ad libitum with diet B (6.63 MJ/kg DM; 179.50 g/kg of crude protein) and by seven animals fed ad libitum with diet C (5.99 MJ/kg DM; 155.40 g/kg of crude protein), each of the diets had the same forage/concentrate ratio (53/47). A significant difference was found in milk production between group B and C (13.08 vs. 11.56 kg/d, p<0.05), an intermediate production (12.10 kg/d) was noted in group A. A significant difference was found between fat (76.58 vs. 69.24 g/kg, p<0.05), protein (46.14 vs. 43.16 g/kg, p<0.05) and casein (39.94 vs. 34.98 g/kg, p<0.05) of the milk of group B with respect to group A. The milk of group C gave fat values (71.80 g/kg), protein (45.52 g/kg) and casein (39.06 g/kg) statistically equal to those of group B. The milk of groups B and C, in respect to the milk of group A, gave values of K20 (1.77, 1.82 vs. 3.68 min, p<0.05), statistically lower and values of A30 (48.28, 47.27 vs. 40.64 mm, p<0.05) statistically higher. Two simple linear regressions were calculated where the independent variable (x) was the daily standardized milk production, the dependent variable (y) or the daily intake of net energy or crude protein. Equation 1) NE (MJ/d) = 74.4049+2.8308×kg of normalized milk; equation 2) CP (kg/d) = 1.4507+0.1085×kg of normalized milk, both the equations were significant (p<0.05) with determination coefficients of 0.58 and 0.50 respectively. For a production of normalized milk that varies from 9 to 13 kg, the respective energy-protein concentrations fluctuate from 6.09 to 6.78 MJ/kg DM and from 148.00 to 174.46 g/kg DM.