Changes

===Risk Factors===

===Risk Factors===

'''Insufficient long fibre in the diet''': It is essential that the diet contains adequate fibre of 2-5cm in length, as it stimulates rumination and forms the rumen mat, where much fermentation occurs. Insufficient long dietary fibre can therefore be detrimental to rumen health. If the diet contains sufficient fibre, but of the wrong lenght, this will also give suboptimal rumen function. Fibre that is chopped too short will not stimulate rumination, and fibre greater than 10cm in length can be selectively sorted out of the diet by the cows themselves.

'''Insufficient long fibre in the diet''': It is essential that the diet contains adequate fibre of 2-5cm in length, as it stimulates rumination and forms the rumen mat, where much fermentation occurs. Insufficient long dietary fibre can therefore be detrimental to rumen health. If the diet contains sufficient fibre, but of the wrong lenght, this will also give suboptimal rumen function. Fibre that is chopped too short will not stimulate rumination, and fibre greater than 10cm in length can be selectively sorted out of the diet by the cows themselves. Because the difficult of feeding dairy cattle lies in providing sufficient metabolisable energy, there is a tendency for farmers to focus on making highly digestible (and therefore high ME) silage rather than that of good fibre quality; this contributes to a lack of sufficient long fibre in the feed.

of long fibre in modem diets is problematic as there is an

increased tendency for silages to be chopped very short

between fibre content and the 'D-value' (or digestible

with the metabolisable energy (ME value). Farmers

tend to concentrate on making high energy silage at the

expense of fibre quantity and quality. In the case of

long fibre may be required (eg, 1 to 2 kg of

chopped hay or straw per cow).

'''Inaccurate fodder dry matter estimation''': If the dry matter content of fodder is overestimated, insufficient

'''Inaccurate fodder dry matter estimation''': If the dry matter content of fodder is overestimated, insufficient