We should all be thankful for the recent surge in conversations related to the benefits of rising protein intake in human diets. From chugs of milk in almost any flavor to the resurgence of cottage cheese, protein is on the rise. This nutritional science is not new, but perhaps with the advent of influencers on TikTok now agreeing with your doctor, people are taking notice.
Protein is trending with nearly all age groups. The younger folks spending time at the gym, the athletes needing recovery drinks, and even the older adults, hoping to make the years over 60 the best yet — everyone is in the game. The good news for dairy is that much of this extra protein comes from milk and other dairy products. Take a few minutes to look at the grams of protein in various meals and compare that to a single serving of a milk drink. The good news for the consumer is that the protein quality of the milk is excellent and full of essential amino acids, branched chain amino acids, and m-TOR stimulating amino acids. This is good if muscle is what you want to build.
Year of feeding for protein
What is the response of the dairy producer and their nutritionists as a result of this trend? Let’s consider the ways to boost the protein level of milk. The past two years have been dominated by finding ways to raise milkfat. In 2026, it is time to feed for milk protein. This is logical since the building blocks for milk protein start from protein feeds in the bunk. Among these are things like soybean meal, canola, cottonseed, alfalfa, rumen-protected amino acids, and urea. The nitrogen in these will be in the bunk today and in the milk tomorrow.
Although as an industry, we won’t win any efficiency awards for the transfer of feed protein to human dietary protein, cows are maybe the best at taking a plethora of ingredients that contain human-inedible nitrogen and upcycling these into milk protein ready for that serving of Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and a high-protein milk drink.
There is a sneaky but very important nutrient we talk about a lot in dairy nutrition which allows the cow to accomplish this important upcycling. It is not found in a normal protein-type ingredient. It is connected to topics like kernel processing silage, the micron size of ground corn, and even opportunities like steam flaking. This nutrient is starch, and no matter if it comes from a corn kernel, sorghum berry, or is contained in some type of by-product, it is key to the dairy cow creating protein in milk.
Why the discussion about starch in an article about milk protein? A cow’s rumen is designed to ferment carbohydrates of all types. Combine this with nitrogen available in the rumen from various feed ingredients and even some that is recycled by the cow, and create two primary outcomes that are important. First, this fermentation creates volatile fatty acids (VFAs) that serve as the primary source of energy for the cow and are precursors for milkfat. Secondly, and pertinent to this discussion, the actual bodies of the microbes themselves incorporate the nitrogen into amino acids, and as they pass out of the rumen to the intestines, are subsequently absorbed by the cow just as a human would absorb dietary protein from cheese or beans. The best part of the story is that these microbial bodies, expressed in nutrition models as microbial protein, have a good amino acid balance to feed the cow’s tissue and offer the amino acids needed to add protein to milk.
The magical process works in slow motion in a beef cow grazing low quality forages. To tune this up to meet the protein needs of a dairy cow or a feedlot animal, starch is needed. Starch acts like high octane fuel to feed the system, maximizing the conversion of carbohydrates to VFAs, and in doing so, raises microbial bodies, thus increasing the outflow of these to provide the needed amino acids to the cow. So, there are at least two ways to bump up the flow of needed amino acids to a high-producing cow. First, you can tune up the feed protein balance and include items like traditional bypass rumen undegradable protein (RUP) sources and rumen-protected amino acids. The second way is to be sure to include the protein that is available in the rumen to provide the needed nitrogen, and then add large amounts of starch to make it all go. This approach, if taken in excess, can be harmful to the rumen environment. But when balanced successfully, the system can produce large amounts of protein arriving at the small intestine to feed the high-producing cow.
Maximizing microbial protein
Where does all of this microbiology hit the farm gate? There are two primary ways to be sure that the starch in corn and sorghum is maximized for microbial protein production. First, there is the real-time processing of corn and sorghum grain in a silage harvest. The advent of kernel processing in corn silage in the early 2000’s has been huge. Corn starch dynamics at silage harvest time is perfect in creating microbial protein. Recent activity in the field to begin a specific process for berry processing sorghum silage will allow higher- grain varieties of sorghum silage to feature this same magic in the drier regions where we milk a lot of cows.
The second opportunity is in processing corn and sorghum grain that was harvested as dry and hard grain, so that the rumen can have access to the starch therein. We must not forget that the corn in corn silage is harvested at perhaps the best time for starch dynamics in the rumen. Think about a nice, boiled ear of sweet corn. This is somewhat similar to where corn ears are during silage harvest. Contrast that to a hard, dry ear of corn in a fall harvest display and recognize the big difference. The shelled corn is not only dead, but also dry, hard, and very poor in ruminal availability unless processed. The type of processing also has a huge impact on how well it feeds in the cow and what the resulting milk protein synthesis will be.
To demonstrate this point, I worked on an existing client’s diet that included approximately 20 pounds of dry matter (DM) corn silage and 10 pounds of DM corn grain. In the chart, I indicated the difference in corn processing options for calculating metabolizable protein (MP) allowable milk. It showed that faster and more complete starch fermentation in the rumen created more microbial protein and thus more MP-allowable milk. Remember, these diets are exactly the same except corn processing and the rumen degradable protein is adequate to support this additional microbial biomass.
These boosts in MP-allowable milk come from growing milk protein production while assuming the milk protein percentage remained constant. In most milk markets, if the end result was steady milk but with a rising milk protein percentage, the income advantage would be the same. If a dairy was not paid for milk protein, it would be more complicated to model the heightened income opportunity.
It is clear that a simple change in the type of corn processing can have a significant impact on milk protein content and thus milk income. These same dynamics are in play with improved grain processing techniques in other grain types, including high moisture corn, corn earlage, and milo/sorghum berries. Considering this option to capitalize on milk income is easy and requires little or no additional ration manipulation.
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