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3 Impact of Total Mixed Ration on Performance of Heifers and Homemade Concentrate Feeding on Milk Yield in Dairy Animals
A. Dey1, B.P. Bhatt2, and J. J. Gupta1
1 ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna, Bihar, India
2 NRM Division, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, India
CONTENTS
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