Ms. Ainhoa Perojo, Product Manager - Ruminant Programme Kemin Europa, Belgium

The concept of amino acid balance is starting to get known in the dairy industry and it is being implemented across Europe. The main constrain in European ruminant rations in order to implement this concept, is the lack of a proper source of Methionine, the first limiting amino acid in milk production is concern. No so many raw materials are rich in methionine, which makes difficult to reach the proper balance between Digestible Lysine (LysDi) and Digestible Methionine (MetDi) (normal ratio of 3:1 for LysDi:MetDi). As a result, the feed industry needs to look closely to the different alternatives present in the market for synthetic methionine.

The first characteristic that any source of methionine for dairy cows need to meet is to be rumen-protected. Methionine sources commonly used in monogastric nutriton are used by rumen-microflora for its own growth limiting the amount of methionine available to the animal.

Rumen-protected methionine can be produced using different technologies and therefore a wide variety of products is available in the market. This situation could make difficult the selection process for the right source of methionine. But if different products are compared only one key word should be taken into account: bio-availability.

This talk will address the different sources of Methionine available in the market and the best ways to evaluate them.