Table 4.

Effect of dietary treatments on ruminal pH and plasma metabolite profiles in dairy cows^2,3

Item	Dietary treatment1				SEM4	P-value
	W0	W10	W20	BP10		Trt	Time	Trt × Time
Ruminal
pH, Average	6.37a	6.01b	5.94b	6.05b	0.05	<0.01	<0.01	0.01
pH, Minimum	5.99a	5.63b	5.41c	5.63b	0.07	<0.01	-	-
Plasma
BHBA5, mmol/L	0.82a	0.76ab	0.68b	0.84a	0.02	<0.01	<0.01	0.88
NEFA6, uEq/L	136.88a	123.20ab	115.23b	111.83b	3.37	0.01	<0.01	0.58
Cholesterol, mmol/L	3.71a	2.97b	2.41c	2.55c	0.06	<0.01	0.13	0.90
Triglyceride, mmol/L	0.20a	0.18b	0.17c	0.17bc	0.01	<0.01	<0.01	0.98
Glucose, mmol/L	3.10b	3.13b	3.22a	3.17ab	0.01	<0.01	<0.01	0.97
Insulin, uIU/mL	6.19b	7.33ab	8.00a	7.62a	0.22	<0.01	<0.01	0.94

¹W0 = TMR containing 0% wheat; W10 = TMR containing 10% wheat; W20 = TMR containing 20% wheat; BP10 = TMR containing 20% wheat plus10% beet pulp; ²a–c Means with different superscripts in the same row differ (Tukey’s test; P<0.05); ³Blood samples were taken at 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12 h post morning feeding; ⁴SEM = Standard error of the mean; ⁵β-hydroxybutyrate; ⁶Non esterified fatty acids.