Milk Index

• DSV varieties have an optimised lignin structure in the cell wall
• The special cell wall structure increases the digestibility of the grasses
• That leads to a faster access to the valuable cell content and to a higher energy and nutrient efficiency

The digestibility of the remaining plant is determined by the cell components (especially sugar) and the fibre digestibility of the cell walls. The share of cell walls of grass is up to 60 % of the total plant, modern maize hybrids contain approximately 45 % cell wall fractions. While in conventional varieties, the indigestible cell wall component lignin („mechanical pulp“) encloses the valuable digestible fibres, in the highly digestible DSV Milk Index varieties this barrier has been broken up by an optimised lignin structure. Reducing the amount of indigestible lignin results in a higher digestibility. As shown in the figure below less steps and less time is needed to digest the cell walls. Thus, the way of digestive bacteria is faster open to the valuable fibres, sugars, proteins, minerals etc. and the absorption of energy from the basic ration increases.