Introduction
3.2 Materials and Methods 3.2.1 Effect of TMR on Milk Yield and Nutrients Digestibility in Crossbred Cows 3.2.2 Effect of Homemade Balanced Concentrate Feed on Milk Yield and Nutrients Intake in Crossbred Cows
3.3 Results and Discussion 3.3.1 Effect of TMR on Milk Yield and Nutrients Digestibility in Crossbred Cows 3.3.2 Effect of Homemade Balanced Concentrate Feed on Milk Yield and Nutrients Intake in Crossbred Cows
3.4 Conclusion and Future Prospects
3.1 Introduction
Small holder dairy animals thrive on crop by‐products and residues with open grazing in field. Very little concentrate mixture is generally fed to the animals, which are often unbalanced based on the availability with the farmers at home. Analysis of nutritional status of animals before ration balancing revealed that 89.4 and 60.9% animals were overfed in terms of TDN and crude protein (CP), respectively and 45.8 and 76% of the animals were underfed in terms of Ca and P, respectively in Gujarat (Garg et al. 2009). In Bihar, Dey and Kaushal (2006) observed 10–27% gap in DCP intake and 5–10% gap in TDN intake in lactating animals. Traditionally in India, forage and concentrate are fed separately to the dairy animals, which sometime results in higher risk of ruminal acidosis particularly in high yielders due to improper nutrients supply and thereby low reproductive and productive performance (Maekawa et al. 2002; Gupta et al. 2016). However, in many parts of India, particularly in wheat growing areas of northern India, in contrary to this, total mixed ration (TMR) feeding is a way to improve rumen conditions by supplying balanced nutrients at a time in the rumen which are essential for better utilization of nutrients (Bargo et al. 2003). It has been reported that supplementation of energy and protein in the diet improves average daily gain (ADG) in Holstein heifers and reduces rearing costs (Zanton and Heinrichs 2007). But at the same time, majority of the farmers in eastern India follow resource‐based separate feeding of roughages and concentrates (Gupta et al. 2014a). Following scientific feeding and management practices, feed conversion efficiency and profitability could be increased and green house gases (GHGs) emission could be reduced (Makkar 2016). For production of 1 kg milk or meat, GHG emission can be reduced by 25% by 10% improvement in digestibility. However, the sustainability of precession feeding is questionable due to poor infrastructure and maintenance support in developing countries (Makkar 2016). TMR (sani feeding system) and preparation of homemade balanced concentrate feed are two low cost technologies that can be widely disseminated in India. Ration balancing programme has extensively been applied by NDDB in different states of India (Garg et al. 2009; Garg and Bhanderi 2011). Recently few workers have observed positive effect in sani feeding system. Somvanshi et al. (2017) observed improvement in milk production by 15.78% following sani feeding technique with supplementation of mineral mixture as compared to farmer practice i.e. roughages without minerals. However, Gupta et al. (2014b) reported that inclusion of concentrate feed to the TMR @1.5% body weight was beneficial in crossbred heifers in respect of body weight gain and nutrients digestibility as compared to concentrate mixture @1% of body weight.
Keeping in view, the positive effect on milk production and wider scope of applicability among smallholders, TMR and homemade balanced concentrate feed were evaluated through, two trials to assess their impact of feeding on milk yield, intake of nutrients, and cost of milk production in crossbred dairy animals.
3.2 Materials and Methods
3.2.1 Effect of TMR on Milk Yield and Nutrients Digestibility in Crossbred Cows
Annual cereal and legume fodders were grown during rainy and winter season under irrigated system at ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna, under subtropical hot and humid climate. The soils were neutral in pH and alluvial‐clay in nature. Multicut sorghum as cereal and rice bean as legume were grown during rainy season. Whereas, oat as cereal and berseem as legume fodder were grown during winter season on the same land on relay system. To study the effect on milk production and nutrient digestibility in first lactating crossbred cows, two feeding experiments were conducted for 60 days duration each during rainy and winter seasons on TMR. In experiment‐I, six cows were distributed into two groups having three cows in each group. For preparation of TMR, wheat straw 2 kg, chapped green forages (multicut sorghum 25 kg and rice bean 2 kg) 27 kg, and concentrate feed (17% dietary CP) 5 kg were mixed together with little water to make sani. The above TMR was offered to each cow of T1 group daily in dividing doses i.e. morning and evening. The cows of group T2 were fed the same quantity of above feed ingredients separately. At first, wheat straw and concentrate feed was offered after mixing with water and then a gap of one to two hours un‐chapped green forages were fed. A total of 10.68 kg dry matter (DM) per day per head was provided to both the groups. Similarly, experiment‐II was conducted in six cows following previous feeding and management schedule. During winter season, however, wheat straw 2 kg, chapped green forages (oat 15 kg and berseem 16 kg) 31 kg and concentrate feed (16.5% dietary CP) 4.5 kg constituted the TMR. Total 11.28 kg DM per day per head was provided to the cows in both the groups. At the end of the feeding experiment, a digestion trial of five‐day duration was conducted in both the experiments. Feed offered, residues and feces were collected daily for DM and CP estimation (AOAC 2005). The dry matter intake (DMI) per 100 kg body weight was calculated. The gross energy (GE) was determined in pooled dry samples. The digestibility of DM and CP, digestible energy (DE) values were calculated and analyzed statistically (Snedecor and Cochran 1994).
3.2.2 Effect of Homemade Balanced Concentrate Feed on Milk Yield and Nutrients Intake in Crossbred Cows
For the development of ration, four low‐cost homemade balanced diets were prepared varying in composition of the different ingredients with locally available feed resources and crop residues available with farmers of different agro‐climatic zones of Bihar. Composition of diets has been given in Table 3.1. For the evaluation of the diets, 16 crossbred cows (HF × Indigenous) of similar parity (first and second), age (26–35 months), and body weight (365.2 ± 3.66 kg) were divided into four groups and fed concentrate mixtures I–IV, respectively at rate of 1 kg concentrate per 2.5 kg of milk yield plus 2 kg for maintenance as per the schedule followed by farmers in the region. Wheat straw and Sorghum fodder were offered ad libitum as source of dry and green fodder, respectively. The study was continued for 35 days during which daily milk yield and its compositions were estimated. Before the experiment, all the animals were fed balanced concentrate feed available in the market at the same rate as used in the experiment along with similar green and dry fodder. Pre‐experiment milk yield of each animal was recorded for 15 days, which was compared with the milk yield of experimental period for each group. Other feeding and management practices were the same. Daily feed offered and residues left were collected daily for DM and CP estimation (AOAC 2005). Body weight of each animal was recorded at the beginning and at the end of the experiment for two consecutive days. Based on these data, DMI per 100 kg body weight was calculated. Data were analyzed statistically (Snedecor and Cochran 1994).
Table 3.1 Composition of home‐made balanced concentrate mixtures.
| Ingredients | Concentrate mixture (% fresh weight basis) |
|---|---|
