The Effect of N-Fertilization Rate or Inclusion of Red Clover to Timothy Leys on Fatty Acid Composition in Dairy Cow Milk

There is growing awareness among consumers of the link between diet and health. Further, the public often associates dairy products with coronary heart disease, since most of the fatty acids (FA) in milk are saturated. Therefore, it would be desirable to improve the FA profile of milk, which might be achieved by using appropriate feeding regimes. N-fertilization has been shown to influence both total fatty acid (TFA) content and the FA composition in a wide variety of species (Arvidsson 2009). The aim of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of grass silages subjected to different N fertilisation regimes fed to dairy cows on the FA composition of their milk, and to compare the grass silages in this respect to red clover-dominated silage, under typical Swedish production conditions