Table 2.

Effect of different levels of biochanin A on the lactational performance of cows.

Item	Treatment1			SEM	P-value
	Control	Low	High
DMI, kg/d	24.63	23.22	22.72	0.375	0.114
Milk yield, kg/d	35.39b	35.27b	37.62a	0.545	0.007
ECM2, kg/d	39.54b	39.83b	42.41a	0.558	0.042
Feed efficiency3	1.42b	1.52ab	1.60a	0.026	0.009
Total intestinal apparent digestibility4, %
CP	76.36	77.63	76.25	0.569	0.534
EE	39.43	44.19	38.95	1.511	0.263
NDF	76.10	77.52	75.92	0.672	0.599

DMI = dry matter in take; ECM = energy-corrected milk; CP = crude protein; EE= ether extract; NDF = neutral detergent fiber.

^a,b Means within a row with different superscripts differ significantly (P < 0.05).

¹Control, basic diet without biochanin A; Low, basic diet with biochanin A at 10 g/d per cow; High, basic diet with biochanin A at 40 g/d per cow.

²ECM was calculated according to NRC (2001): ECM (kg/d) = 12.55 × fat yield (kg/d) + 7.39 × protein yield (kg/d) + 5.34 × lactose yield (kg/d).

³Feed efficiency was calculated as the rate of ECM (kg/d) divided by DMI (kg/d).

⁴Total intestinal apparent digestibility of nutrients was calculated using acid insoluble ash as an internal standard (Keulen and Young, 1977).