The forty bales of MO silage were transferred to Yavne Feeding Center (Kibutz Yavne, Israel) and used for daily fresh preparation of the MO-TMR. The freshly prepared MO and control TMRs, were delivered to the Agricultural Research Organization dairy barn in Bet-Dagan (Israel), and fed to one of the two groups of 21 lactating cows, each. Composition of the ingredients included in the two TMRs is presented in Table 2 and the chemical composition of the two TMRs is presented in Table 3.