One of our presenters at the Dairy Solutions Symposium, sponsored by Alltech focused on the issue of sub-acute ruminal acidosis (SARA) in grazing dairy cows. Finbar Mulligan is from University College Dublin, Ireland.
He was presenting some new research on this subject. He found that diet is important and that you shouldn’t assume that because grazing cows may be eating more forage they automatically have an adequate ruminal pH. The study found about a 10 percent incidence of SARA which is similar to other studies. He said that the symposium has brought out how much difference of opinion there is on this subject such as whether or not there are different types of SARA, that they’re only related to grain or starch diet overload or some other factor.
Finbar Mulligan Interview