Frequently Asked Questions 

Q? Looking for information on feeding flaxseed to lactating dairy cattle.

A: Information is very limited on feeding flax to lactating dairy cattle.
Most of the effort has gone into poultry, where altering the composition
of eggs for Omega-3 fatty acid.

I have no experience with flax seed and suggest limiting the amount of
seed to less than a pound of added vegetable oil per cow per day). So
depending on your level of fat in the diet, 10% may be a little high. The
seed would also have to be processed to avoid whole seed passage

In some research done in Canada, a trial was designed to determine
whether oilseeds, which are readily available in Alberta, can replace more
expensive supplementary fat sources in diets for lactating cows. After
consuming a common diet for 2 weeks, 24 early- and 8 mid- lactation
Holstein cows were randomly assigned to one of four diets for a 12-week
feeding trial. On a dry matter (DM) basis, diets contained 20% alfalfa
silage, 20% alfalfa hay and 60% of a concentrate mixture containing either
:

8.2% rolled canola seed;
8.2% rolled flaxseed;
4.1 % canola seed and 4.1 % flaxseed, or;
3.6% Megalac®, a commonly used source of bypass (rumen inert) fat.

The 5% added oilseed supplements contributed 2.2 % added fat to the
dietary DM.

DM intakes, milk yields and milk composition of cows on the 4 diets
were not significantly different between diets. Source of dietary fat also
had no influence on milk fat composition with the exception that flax seed
increased the concentration of linolenic acid.

Results indicate that the addition of 2.2% dietary fat as canola seed or
flaxseed and/or combination of these oilseeds to the diet of dairy cattle
can promote similar performance to that observed for cows fed similar
levels of fat in the form of Megalac®.

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