Four diets in one university herd
A study published in Animals on 7 August 2026 compared diets containing ensiled pomegranate by-product in 72 Murciano-Granadina goats at Miguel Hernández University in Spain. The feeding trial lasted eight weeks.
Animals were balanced across four treatments, with two batches per treatment. The researchers randomly assigned diets to the batches and recorded individual milk yield, body weight and milk composition at repeated sampling points.
Milk yield and batch-level intake
The main effect of diet on milk yield was not statistically significant. Table 2 reports means of 1.83 kg/day for the control and 1.69 kg/day for PS_15, the diet with the highest pomegranate by-product inclusion. Milk yield changed significantly across sampling points.
Feed and water intake were recorded by batch and expressed per goat. The authors reported observed means and standard deviations for these measurements. Feed was supplied in fixed quantities, and observed dry-matter intake averaged 1.94 kg/day in the control and 1.76 kg/day with PS_15.
The authors call for longer studies
Blood was sampled at the beginning and end of the experiment. Diet did not significantly affect the reported plasma antioxidant-capacity measurements, while ABTS and FRAP values changed between the two sampling points.
The authors call for studies covering at least a full lactation to examine prolonged consumption, milk yield, animal status and ruminal metabolism, and to further validate practical use under commercial conditions.
Source and licence
Source: José Ramón Díaz, Marina Galvez-Lopez, Dieu donné Kiatti, Amparo Roca, Mihaela Iasmina Madalina Ilea, Alberto S Atzori and Gema Romero. Dairy Goats’ Responses to Different Levels of Pomegranate By-Product Silage in the Diet: Productive Performance and Metabolic Indicators. Animals (2026), 16, 2456. DOI: 10.3390/ani16162456. © 2026 by the authors. CC BY 4.0. FoodRadar prepared and edited this summary.
-
Dairy Goats’ Responses to Different Levels of Pomegranate By-Product Silage in the Diet: Productive Performance and Metabolic Indicators ↗
Animals : an Open Access Journal from MDPI · CC-BY-4.0 ↗. José Ramón Díaz, Marina Galvez-Lopez, Dieu donné Kiatti, Amparo Roca, Mihaela Iasmina Madalina Ilea, Alberto S. Atzori and Gema Romero (2026). Dairy Goats’ Responses to Different Levels of Pomegranate By-Product Silage in the Diet: Productive Performance and Metabolic Indicators. Animals 16(16), 2456. DOI: 10.3390/ani16162456. © 2026 by the authors. CC BY 4.0. Adapted, edited and translated by FoodRadar. Adapted by FoodRadar.