Effect of differently shaped brown rice on growth, feed digestibility, and rumen fermentation in dairy heifers

This study was conducted to investigate the influence of feeding differently shaped brown rice on daily gain (DG), digestibility, and rumen fermentation in 6-month-old Holstein heifers. We set up three dietary treatment groups that were fed different feed materials comprising 42% of the concentrate : the control group (10 heifers) was fed steam-flaked corn, the whole grain group (11 heifers) was fed whole grain brown rice, and the crushed grain group (11 heifers) was fed crushed brown rice. The roughage fed was timothy hay and the amount required was weighed together with the concentrated feed, and limited feed was provided. The body weight (at the end of examination), DG and feed efficiency were significantly lower in the whole grain group than in other groups. Dry matter digestibility and starch digestibility also decreased (P