We hypothesized that EFE supplementation would improvefiber digestion, ruminalfermentation, and increase milk yield.
Although we found increasing DM and NDF intake, which raised ruminal production of SCFA, milk yield and composition
was not altered. In view of this, Beauchemin et al. (2003a) reported potential increases in feed voluntary intake due to
improvements on ruminal fiber digestion, increasing feed passage rate through the digestive tract, by EFE supplementation.
In a review of twenty papers by Beauchemin et al. (2003a), EFE supplementing showed to increase in 1.0 kg/d the DM intake
of dairy cows. In the current experiment, we associated such DM intake growth (up to 0.7 kg/d) with rumination since it is
essential to break down feed particles enabling passage though reticulo-omasal orifice