Did you know that some grasses give more milk?

A high digestibility of grass enables the cow to have a higher feed intake which again can result in up to 0,25 l more milk per cow per day.

There is money in finding the right grass mixture, where you can reap a high yield of digestible grass. Our DLF Fiber Energy logo is a stamp we give to all of our forage varieties that have high digestibility.

With high digestibility comes a number of benefits. More milk in the tank equals a higher profit to the farmer, but the climate also profits from the high digestibility. The higher the digestibility, the less methane the cow produces.

More milk in the tank? Read our business case

Understanding digestibility

If we want to understand what affects digestibility of grass, we must go to the cellular level and see how the grass plant cells are built. A plant cell may be divided into cell content and cell wall:

• All of the cell content have a high digestibility close to 100%,
• The cell wall consist of β-glucanes, pectines, cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin.
• Pectines and β-glucanes have a high digestibility (100%)
• Digestibility of lignin is 0%
• The digestibility of cellulose and hemicellulose varies and thus determines the overall digestibility of the grass plant

The digestibility of grass depends, among other factors, on cutting time, weather and fertilization, but we have also seen a difference between grass varieties, when they are compared under the same growing conditions. If you want to learn more about digestibility, have a look at our DLF Fiber Energy section.

Are you interested in finding DLF Fiber Energy varieties you can find them here.