Boosting Dairy Production: How Yeast Helps Cows

You might think yeast is just for baking bread, but it turns out it can also help cows produce more milk! Researchers found that giving live yeast (a tiny organism called Saccharomyces cerevisiae) to high-yielding dairy cows can improve their milk production. When 50 Holstein cows were given food with live yeast for about four months, they produced more milk and milk fat compared to cows that didn't get the yeast. Interestingly, the cows eating the yeast-enhanced food didn't eat more; they just got more out of what they ate. This means they were more efficient at turning their food into milk. Their bodies also seemed to digest the food better. However, the yeast didn't change things like methane emissions (which is a gas cows naturally produce) or their reproductive health. That's good news because it means we can potentially help cows produce more milk without harming their health.