Dietary starch concentration alters reticular pH, hepatic copper concentration, and performance in lactating Holstein-Friesian dairy cows receiving added dietary sulfur and molybdenum.

To test the hypothesis that Cu metabolism in dairy cows is affected by dietary starch concentration and additional sulfur S and Mo, 60 Holstein-Friesian dairy cows that were [mean ± standard error (SE)] 33 ± 2.5 days postcalving and yielding 41 ± 0.9 kg of milk/d were fed 1 of 4 diets in a 2 × 2 factorial design experiment over a 14-wk period. The 4 diets had a Cu concentration of approximately 15 mg/kg of dry matter (DM), a grass silage-to-corn silage ratio of 1:1, a dietary starch concentration of either 150 g/kg of DM (low starch, LS) or 220 g/kg of DM (high starch, HS), and were either unsupplemented (-) or supplemented (+) with an additional 0.8 g of S/kg of DM and 4.4 mg of Mo/kg of DM. We found an effect of dietary starch concentration on mean reticular pH, which was 0.15 pH units lower in cows fed the high starch diets. The addition of S and Mo decreased intake by 1.8 kg of DM/d, an effect that was evident beginning in wk 1 of the study. Mean milk and fat yields were 37.0 and 1.51 kg/d, respectively, and were not affected by dietary treatment. We found an effect of dietary starch concentration on milk protein concentration, protein yield, and urea nitrogen, which were increased by 2.8 g/kg, 0.09 kg/d, and 2.1 mg/dL, respectively, in cows fed the high starch diets. We found no effect of dietary treatment on either cow live weight or body condition. Mean plasma Cu, Fe, and Zn concentrations were 15.3, 42.1, and 14.4 µmol/L, respectively, and were not affected by dietary treatment. In contrast, we found an interaction between dietary starch concentration and Cu antagonists on plasma Mo, where feeding additional S and Mo increased plasma Mo to a greater extent when cows were offered the high versus low starch diet. We also found that increasing dietary starch concentration increased serum ceruloplasmin activity, but serum haptoglobin concentration was not affected by dietary treatment. The addition of S and Mo decreased hepatic Cu concentration, whereas in cows fed the higher dietary starch concentration, hepatic Cu concentration was increased over the period of our study. We concluded that increasing dietary starch concentration decreases rumen pH and increases milk protein yield and hepatic Cu concentration, whereas feeding additional S and Mo decreases intake and hepatic Cu concentration.