Comparison of rumen microbial communities in dairy herds of different production

In the US, there is a substantial difference in annual milk production between dairy herds. We hypothesized that the rumen microbial composition will be different between higher and lower yielding dairy herds and that each dairy herd will have a distinct microbial fingerprint. This study included 85 Holstein dairy cows from two farms: Farm12 (M305;, 12,324 kg; n=47; primiparous cows: 24, multiparous cows: 23) and Farm9 (M305;, 9,693 kg; n=38; primiparous cows: 19, multiparous cows: 19). Bacterial diversity from rumen samples was characterized using 16S rRNA gene sequencing using Ion Torrent (PGM)Ion Torrent platform. Differences in microbial communities between farms were greater (p