Coffee hulls in diets of lactating dairy cows: intake, digestibility and milk yield and composition

The objective of this trial was to investigate the effect of replacing corn silage with coffee hulls (0, 6.0, 12.0, and 18.0% of DM) on intake, apparent total tract digestibility of nutrients, and milk production and composition. Twelve Holstein cows were blocked by days in milk and randomly assigned to three replicated 4 x 4 Latin squares. Diets were isonitrogenous averaging 15.0% of CP and composed by 60% of forage (corn silage and coffee hulls) and 40% of concentrate, on DM basis. Intakes of DM, OM, CP, TC, NFC, EE and TDN all decreased linearly while the opposite was observed for neutral detergent fiber (NDF) with the inclusion of coffee hulls in the diet. Apparent total tract digestibilities of DM, OM, CP, TC, and NDF and the dietary TDN content decreased linearly by increasing the proportion of coffee hulls in the diet but no significant effect was observed for EE digestibility. A significant quadratic effect was found for milk yield, with maximum of 26.83 kg/day at the coffee hulls level of 8.44%. No quadratic effect was observed for milk components. It can be concluded that coffee hulls can replace up to 12% of the corn silage DM in the diet depending on the availability and economic costs.