Abstract

The responses of dairy cattle to chromium (Cr) supplementation reported in the literature suggest that it has the potential to reduce the incidence of both mastitis and ketosis. The effect of Cr supplementation of pasture fed dairy cows in early lactation was studied. Ten lactating Jersey cows fitted with rumen fistula were infused with either Cr-yeast (n=4), casein (n=3) or buffer only (controls; n=3) directly into the abomasum. All cows were subjected to a hyperinsulinaemic euglycaemic clamp. Preliminary results show that there was no effect of Cr supplementation on milk yield, cortisol and b-hydroxy butyrate concentrations and somatic cell counts.

PJ, Back, J Lee, DDS MacKenzie, SR Davis, and PM Harris

Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production, Volume 59, , 58-61, 1999