Clover species in grass-clover silages affects milk fatty acid composition

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine the effect of clover species on milk fatty acid (FA) composition. Lactating dairy cows were allocated to two groups and fed grass-clover silage containing either white clover (WC) or red clover (RC), without or with concentrate supplementation. No significant interaction of clover species with concentrate supplementation could be observed.RC milk had significantly higher proportion o fpolyunsaturated FAs (P<0.001), particularly C18:3 n -3 (P<0.001), and contained a higher n -3/ n -6 FA ratio (P<0.05) than WC milk. It is concluded that RC silage, independent of concentrate supply, yielded milk with more beneficial FA composition than WC silage.