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“NUTRITIONAL EVALUATION OF TOTAL MIXED

RATION COMPRISING OF GRAM (Cicer Arietinum L.)

STRAW IN CATTLE”

BY

CHAUHAN PRAVINSINH A.

B. V. Sc. & A. H.

(Reg. No. 04- 2447- 2014)

ANIMAL NUTRITION RESEARCH DEPARTMENT

COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SCIENCE & ANIMAL HUSBANDRY

ANAND AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY

ANAND – 388 110 (GUJARAT)

INDIA

2016

“NUTRITIONAL EVALUATION OF TOTAL MIXED

RATION COMPRISING OF GRAM (Cicer arietinum L.)

STRAW IN CATTLE”

A

THESIS

SUBMITTED TO THE ANAND AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY IN

PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD

OF THE DEGREE

OF

MASTER OF VETERINARY SCIENCE

IN

ANIMAL NUTRITION BY

CHAUHAN PRAVINSINH A.

B. V. Sc. & A. H.

(Reg. No. 04- 2447- 2014)

ANIMAL NUTRITION RESEARCH DEPARTMENT

COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SCIENCE & ANIMAL HUSBANDRY

ANAND AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY

ANAND – 388 110 (GUJARAT)

INDIA

Dedicated to

My Beloved

Family…

Abstract

i

ABSTRACT

STUDENT: CHAUHAN PRAVINSINH A. MAJOR ADVISOR: Dr. D. C. PATEL

DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL NUTRITION

COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY

ANAND AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY, ANAND-388 110

“Nutritional evaluation of total mixed ration comprising of gram

(Cicer arietinum L.) straw in cattle”

An experiment of 5 weeks duration was conducted for nutritional evaluation of gram

(Cicer arietinum) straw on twelve cattle. The two treatments were T1 (control): concentrate

mixture (45%) + wheat straw (55%) and T2 (Treatment): concentrate mixture (45%) + gram

straw (80% replacement of wheat straw). Completely randomized design was followed. The

growing cattle were fed as per ICAR (1998) feeding standards to meet nutrient requirement in

terms of DM, DCP and TDN.

In order to optimize the level of inclusion of gram straw for maximum DM and OM

digestibility, the gram straw was incorporated from 20,40,60,80 and 100% in the TMRs

replacing wheat straw. The average values of IVDMD and IVOMD at 24 h incubation for G0

(100% wheat straw), G1 (100% gram straw), G2 (80% gram straw), G3 (60% gram straw), G4

(40% straw), and G5 (20% gram straw) treatment groups were observed as 66.47, 69.36,

69.21, 66.50, 66.30 and 62.41% and 65.84, 69.08, 69.14, 66.52, 65.24 and 65.82%,

respectively. The statistical analysis of data revealed significant (P<0.05) decrease in

IVDMD and IVOMD in G0, G3, G4, and G5 treatment group as compared to G1 and G2 groups.

The study revealed that optimum level of incorporation of gram straw with wheat straw in

TMR for feeding of cattle was G1 (100% gram straw) and G2 groups (80% gram straw).

The data for daily DM intake kg per day animal, kg per 100 kg body weight and g per

kg metabolic body weight were 4.13, 2.54 and 90.98 for control (T1) while 4.19, 2.52 and

90.91 for treatment (T2) group, respectively. Average daily CP, DCP and TDN intakes were

476.66 and 510.24 g; 299.18 and 330.34 g and 2.23 and 2.34 kg in T1 and T2, respectively.

The results revealed non-significant difference (P>0.05) between treatment and control group

for feed intake whereas total and average daily weight gain were found significant. The

ii

average daily weight gain was 452.38 and 552.38 g in T1 and T2 groups, respectively. These

data suggested that feeding of TMR with gram straw had significant effect on animal growth.

The results for rumen fermentation pattern revealed that SRL pH was lower in T1

(6.50) than T2 (6.70) and the treatment differences was non-significant (P>0.05). However,

there was significant difference in the average TVFA concentrations (14.48 and 16.39 mM/dl

in T1 and T2, respectively) in both the groups. The average value of ammonia-N and total-N

concentration under T2 (13.28 and 69.93 mg/dl) were highly significant as compared to T1

(11.68, 66.49 and mg/dl) whereas the difference between treatment for protein nitrogen was

non-significant (P>0.05).

The digestibility coefficients of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein were 55.21

and 59.19 % (P<0.05), 59.68 and 63.24 % (P<0.05), 62.77 and 64.74 % (P<0.05) for T1 and

T2, respectively which were higher in T2 compare to T1. While digestibility of ether extract

and crude fibre were 68.36 and 68.66, 56.88 and 55.96 in T1 and T2, respectively which were

found non-significant. The digestibility of NDF, ADF and NFE was 57.48 and 58.87 %,

45.11.06 and 48.09% and 59.81 and 63.71% for T1 and T2, respectively. The digestibility of

NFE was found statistically significant while digestibility of NDF and ADF were found non-

significant (P>0.05).

The efficiency of feed utilization (DM intake per kg gain) was higher in T1 (8.69 kg)

followed by T2 (7.28 kg). The treatment differences were found to be statistically non-

significant (P>0.05). The value for CP, DCP and TDN intake per kg weight gain were 1.06,

0.66 and 4.95 kg in control group (T1) and 0.94, 0.61 and 4.30 kg in treatment group (T2),

respectively. The treatment difference for CP intake, DCP intake and TDN intake were non-

significant (P>0.05).

The daily cost of feed was ₹ 48.98 and 49.95, while cost of feed ₹/kg gain was 108.27

and 91.67 respectively in T1 and T2 group. The daily feed cost was more or less similar but

the cost of feeding ₹/kg gain was reduced by 15.33% in T2. (P>0.05)

It is concluded from these results that cattle can be raised on gram straw based TMR

with better efficiency to that of cattle fed control TMR with regards to growth rate, nutrients

digestibility, efficiency for feed and nutrient utilization.

Dr. D. C. PATEL

Ph.D.

Research Scientist

Animal Nutrition Research Department

College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry

Anand Agricultural University

Anand – 388 110 (Gujarat)

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the thesis entitled “Nutritional evaluation of

total mixed ration comprising of Gram (Cicer arietinum L.) straw

in cattle” submitted by CHAUHAN PRAVINSINH A. in

partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree

of “MASTER OF VETERINARY SCIENCE” in the subject of

“ANIMAL NUTRITION” is a record of bonafide research work

carried out by him under my guidance and supervision and the

thesis has not previously formed the basis for the award of any

degree, diploma or other similar title.

Reg. No. 04-2447-2014 (D. C. PATEL)

MAJOR ADVISOR

Place: Anand

Date: / /2016

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that I have no objection for providing

to any scientist only one copy of any part of this thesis

at a time through reprographic process, if necessary

for rendering reference service in a library or

documentation center.

Reg. No.: 04-2447-2014 (CHAUHAN PRAVINSINH A.)

Place: Anand

Date: / /2016

DECLARATION

This is to declare that the whole of the research work reported in

this thesis for partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

“MASTER OF VETERINARY SCIENCE” in ANIMAL

NUTRITION by the undersigned is the result of investigations done

by me under direct guidance and supervision of Dr. D. C. PATEL,

Research Scientist, Animal Nutrition Research Department, College of

Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Anand Agricultural

University, Anand and that no part of the work has been submitted for

any other degree, so far.

Reg. No.: 04-2448-2014 (CHAUHAN PRAVINSINH A.)

Place: Anand

Date: / /2016

Countersigned by

(D. C. PATEL)

Research Scientist

Animal Nutrition Research Department

College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry

Anand Agricultural University

Anand – 388 110

[Gujarat State]

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Some glorifying moments come in this short eventful life that are to be kept in

one corner of the heart for good, so that I can find out the significance of life recalling

these sweet memories.

First and foremost, my heartfelt appreciation goes to my respected Major advisor,

Dr. D. C. PATEL, Professor, Animal Nutrition Department, College of Veterinary

Science and Animal Husbandry, Anand Agricultural University, Anand campus, Anand.

Words are insufficient to express my gratitude for my advisor, who has devoted his

precious time for my research and thesis completion. His words of advice have been the

major motivational force in not only making me excel in academics but also inculcating in

me qualities of a fine citizen.

I am indeed thankful to my Minor Advisor Dr. R. S. JOSHI, Professor,

Department of Animal Genetics & Breeding, College of Veterinary Science and Animal

Husbandry, Anand Agricultural University, Anand campus, Anand, for his kind counsel

whenever necessary.

I am thankful to the members of my advisory committee: Dr. Subhash Parnerkar,

Research Scientist & Head, Dr. R. S. Gupta Research Scientist, Dr P. R. Pandya,

Professor, Animal Nutrition Research Department & Dr A. M. Pande, Professor &

Head, Department of Biochemistry & Biotechnology, AAU, Anand for their valuable

suggestions during the tenure of my study and Research work.

I fail in words to express my earnest thanks to Dr. N.C. Patel, The Honourable

Vice Chancellor, AAU, Anand , Dr. K. B. Kathiriya, Director of Research &Dean P.G

studies Dr. M. K. Jhala, Associate Director of Research, Dr. A. M. Thaker, Principal &

Dean, Dr. B. P. Joshi, PGT Chairman, Dr. J. J. Hasnani Professor & Head of Veterinary

Parasitology Dept. College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, AAU, Anand

for his munificent attitude in providing the necessary facilities to carry out the M. V. Sc

and research work.

No formal word is sufficient to convey my sincere and heartiest gratitude to Shri

G. R. Patel, Associate Research Scientist, Animal Nutrition Research Department, AAU,

Anand, for his whole hearted encouragement, advices and his ever willing support during

research work..

My deepest gratitude goes to Dr M. A. Shekh, Assistant Research Scientist and

Dr. B. R. Devalia, Assistant Research Scientist, Animal Nutrition Research Department,

College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, AAU, Anand for their cooperation

during the course of experiment. I am thankful to Dr. P. M. Lunagariya, Assistant

Research Scientist, Livestock Research Station, College of Veterinary Science and Animal

Husbandry, AAU, Anand. For motivational support.

This list is incomplete without a mention of research fellows Hiren bhai, and

Kashmira for their support. Also, the who were there for me whenever I needed their help.

I would like to place on record a deep appreciation of personal kindness showered

by my seniors Drs. HARSH GOSWAMI, VARUN PARMAR (KAVIBHAI), Anjali my

P.G colleagues Drs. CHETAN, Mitul, And My Junior Friend Dr. Shveta Patel for their

tireless help, constant support, love, inspiration and whole hearted co-operation rendered

ii

during my entire P.G. study and research work. I extend my heartful thanks to Drs.

Avinash Bilwal & Deepak Mer for providing a stimulating and fun filed environment

through their support, love and time during this endeavor.

I am especially thankful to department staff, Smt. S. Pathan (Laboratory

Technician) for her invaluable help, mental support and kind co-operation throughout the

course of study, Animal Nutrition Research Department, Veterinary College, Anand. I

will be failing in my duties if I don’t recall the help offered by college staff Mr. Amit

Patel for his motivational support throughout the course.

I am thankful to farm workers Satish bhai, Mahesh bhai, Bharat bhai, Sudha and

Chiman bhai. Laboratory workers Sombhai , Vishnu bhai and Arun bhai, Animal

Nutrition Research Department, Veterinary College, Anand for help during research

work.

Words are short to express my deep sense of feelings, gratitude and regards to my

beloved Mother, Father, little sister (payal), dadi, Fiancée and cousins for their blessings,

love, affection, sincere encouragement and inspiration. They truly deserve more than a

word of thanks, because without their psychological support nothing was possible.

Above all, I thank the almighty for giving me patience and strength to overcome

the difficulties, which crossed my way in accomplishment at this endeavor. At the end I

would like to thank all those people who made this thesis possible and an unforgettable

experience for me.

I would like to beg pardon and tender my apologies to all those who helped me but

whose names have not been included in the acknowledgement.

Place: Anand [Pravinsinh Chauhan]

Date:

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

NO. TITLE

Page

No.

I INTRODUCTION 1-6

II REVIEW OF LITERATURE 7-56

III MATERIALS AND METHODS 57-66

IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 67-106

V SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 107-111

BIBLIOGRAPHY I to XII

LIST OF TABLES

Sr.

No. Title

Page

2.1 Chemical composition of gram straw: (% On Dry Matter basis) 9

2.2 In-Vitro gas Production 11

3.1 Ingredient composition of total mixed ration (%) with replacement of wheat straw

by gram straw 64

3.2 Composition of McDougall buffer used for in vitro studies 65

3.3 Composition of media for in vitro gas production technique (IVGPT) 66

3.4 Grouping of animals 59

3.5 Ingredient composition of total mixed ration (TMRs) offered to Experimental

cattle. 59

4.1 The average pH, IVDMD%, IVOMD% and TGP (ml) during in vitro study

(24 h incubation) 71

4.2 Average daily dry matter intake (kg/animal) of cattle under feeding experiment 71

4.3 Average daily dry matter intake (kg/100 kg BW) of cattle under feeding

experiment 73

4.4 Average daily dry matter intake (g/kg W0.75) of cattle under feeding experiment. 75

4.5 Average daily CP intake (g) by cattle under feeding experiment 76

4.6 Average daily DCP intake (g) by cattle under feeding experiment 77

4.7 Average daily TDN intake (kg) by cattle under feeding experiment 77

4.8 Total body weight gain (kg) and average daily gain in cattle under experiment 78

4.9 Average periodical changes in strained rumen liquor pH of cattle under feeding

experiment 81

4.10 Average total volatile fatty acids concentration (mM/dL) in strained rumen liquor

of cattle under feeding experiment. 82

4.11 Average total nitrogen concentration (mg/dL) in strained rumen liquor of cattle

under feeding experiment 84

4.12 Average ammonia nitrogen concentration (mg/dL) in strained rumen liquor of

cattle under feeding experiment. 86

4.13 Average non-protein nitrogen concentration (mg/dl) in strained rumen liquor of

cattle under feeding experiment. 87

4.14 Average protein nitrogen concentration (mg/dl) in strained rumen liquor of cattle

under feeding experiment 91

4.15 Average soluble nitrogen concentration (mg/dl) in strained rumen liquor of cattle 90

under feeding experiment

4.16 Average digestibility (%) of dry matter for cattle under feeding experiment 91

4.17 Average digestibility (%) of organic matter for cattle under feeding experiment 93

4.18 Average digestibility (%) of crude protein for cattle under feeding experiment 95

4.19 Average digestibility (%) of ether extract for cattle under feeding experiment 97

4.20 Average digestibility (%) of crude fibre for cattle under feeding experiment 98

4.21 Average digestibility (%) of nitrogen free extract for cattle under feeding

experiment 99

4.22 Average digestibility (%) of neutral detergent fibre for cattle under feeding

experiment 100

4.23 Average digestibility (%) of acid detergent fibre for cattle under feeding

experiment 100

4.24 Dry matter intake kg per kg weight gain for cattle under feeding experiment 102

4.25 Crude protein, digestible crude protein and total digestible nutrients intake kg per

kg weight gain for cattle under feeding experiment for cattle under experiment. 104

4.26 Feeding cost (₹/d/animal and ₹/kg gain) of cattle fed total mixed ration under

feeding experiment 105

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure

No.

Title After

Page

4.1 In vitro DMD of TMR incorporated with different levels of gram straw and

concentrate mixture 70

4.2 In vitro OMD of TMR incorporated with different levels of gram straw and


4.3 In vitro TGP of TMR incorporated with different levels of gram straw and


4.4 Average DM intake (kg/d) by cattle under feeding experiment 71

4.5 Weekly body weight (kg) of cattle under feeding experiment 78

4.6 Average periodical changes in SRL-pH of cattle under feeding experiment 82

4.7 Average periodical changes in SRL-TVFA (Mm/100ml) of cattle under feeding

experiment 82

4.8

Average periodical changes in SRL nitrogen fractions of cattle under feeding

experiment

91

4.9 Average nutrient digestibility (%) by cattle under feeding experiment 95

4.10 Average nutrient intake (g) by cattle under two treatments 103

4.11 Feeding cost (₹/d/animal) of cattle under feeding experiment 104

LIST OF PLATES

Plate

No. Title

After

Page

3.1 Total mixed rations 60

3.2 Experimental cattle under experiment 61

3.3 Collection of rumen liquor 61

3.4 In vitro incubation of total mixed rations. 61

3.5 Experimental cattle during digestion trial 63

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

Livestock production account for 40% of the world’s gross agriculture

production (MoFA, 2000). India possesses huge livestock population comprising of

304.4 million bovines contributing to 121 million tonnes of milk (FA0, 2010). India

has 304.4 million total bovine populations out of which 199.1 million are cattle and

105.3 million are buffaloes. In the adult female contributes 73 million as cattle and

54.5 million as buffalo. Beside this there remains large amount of population which

include growing calves. The first step in running successful dairying is proper

management of young stock which starts with proper nutritional care (NDDB, 2012).

Livestock sector plays a crucial role in rural economy and livelihood, particularly for

the welfare of rural population of India. This is one sector, where poor contributes to

the growth directly instead of getting benefit from growth generated elsewhere. The

livestock sector supports agriculture in the form of critical inputs, contributing to the

health and nutrition of the household, supplementing income, offering employment

opportunities and finally being a dependable “bank on hooves” in times of need. More

importantly, the importance of livestock in India’s economy can be gauged from the

fact that 90 million farming families rear over 90 million milch animals. Livestock

provides a large share of draught power, with about half the cattle population and 25

percent of the buffalo population being used to cultivate 60 million hetares for crop

production land. Draught animal power is making a significant contribution to

agricultural production and thus to the rural economy. The contribution is roughly

estimated to the tune of ₹. 10,000 crores per year besides saving approximately six

million tonnes of petroleum worth ₹ 6,000 crore (Anonymous, 2012).

The world cattle inventory is 971.482 million in 2016. India is having the

largest number of cattle account for 31.05% of the world population. Livestock

Introduction

2

population has increased substantially in Gujarat (15.36%) as per livestock census

2012. The largest numbers of 5.04 million cattle are found in Uttar Pradesh while total

cattle population of Gujarat is 2.04 million as per livestock census 2012. Cattle

rearing in India are primarily dependent upon herbage from natural range lands and

crop residues. The alternative resource is by improving the natural range lands

through introduction of pastures and legumes (Pailan et al., 2002).

As population grows it lead to new diverse challenges and constraints viz.

increased feed, fodder needs and decrease in available natural resources. This scenario

demands a paradigm shift in formulating and implementing the agriculture research.

Walli et al. (2006) reported that the problem of feed shortage could be overcome to

some extent by generating newer feeds, but apart from that, we must also make effort

for optimizing nutrient supply to our bovine stock, through the use of alternative feed

technologies, which may lead to increase the nutrient supply within the ruminant

system, through better and efficient utilization of feed nutrients. India produces 540

million tonnes of crop residues and coarse straw (Ramchandra et al., 2006). In India,

majority of livestock subsist on low quality native grasses, crop residues and agro-

industrial by products. Nutrients of crop residue based diets are partially available for

digestion in ruminants. Increasing the nutrient availability for better utilization of crop

residue has been a primary focus of farmers for sustainable profit in farms.

The huge livestock population of India needs to be fed with balanced rations

in order to maintain productivity potentials (Waje et al., 2010). The scarcity of green

fodder and escalating demand of concentrate ingredients for human consumption has

led to the utilization of non-competitive and non- conventional crop residues in

livestock feeding. Use of locally available feed ingredients can substantially reduce

the cost of production of livestock (Saha et al., 2002). The scarcity of green fodder

Introduction

3

and high cost of conventional feed ingredients have prompted the researchers to

improve the feeding value of poor quality crop residues (Aasharekha et al., 2005).

Inadequate availability of good quality feed regarded as a major constraint to

prevalent small ruminants production system (Anbarasu et al., 2004 and Reddy et al.,

2009). The portion of crop remaining after threshing of the seed is available in

abundance and is staple feed stuff for ruminants. There is a need for better utilization

of crop residues and agro-industrial by-products to maximum through different feed

processing methods and technologies to ensure better profit from the livestock.

Feeding of crop residues particularly leguminous straws for livestock as a major

roughage source has been observed during harvest season as they are most abundantly

available. Inclusion of cereal grains not only increases the cost of concentrate

mixtures, but also causes its scarce use for the feeding of monogastric animals to meet

their energy requirements. Therefore, ruminant’s diet devoid of grains will help

sparing them for human and non-ruminants (Dhakad et al., 2002). Leguminous

straw/bhusa appears to be a valuable edible biomass due to its high nutritive value and

feeding quantities and can serve as a potential feed resource during the lean period.

These crop residues could be incorporated as basal roughage in the complete diets of

small ruminant’s upto 60% (Rama Prasad et al., 2000). Such crop residues after

fortification of deficit nutrients provide adequate balanced diet to the animals as well

as overcome associated problems of handling and storage.

There is need to maximize livestock production through exploiting the feeding

value of tropical forages (Varaprasad et al., 2000) and to sustain supplementation by

exploring cheaper sources for supplementary feed. This can be achieved by many

methods; of which supplementation with crop residues and leguminous tree leaves has

been identified as a sustainable method to augment the deficient uptake of nutrients

Introduction

4

from browsing/grazing and to increase the dry matter consumption from poor quality

pastures. In the recent years, the concept of feeding complete rations comprising of

fibrous crop residues to dairy animals become popular among the farmers.

Supplementation with concentrate alone is not sustainable due to high costs involved,

while utilization of only roughage supplements in the dietary regimen leads to poor

performance due to inadequate energy supply from the diet (Ravi and Prasad, 2005).

The objective of complete rations is to provide a blend of all the feed ingredients

including roughages without giving any choice to the animal for selection of specific

ingredients (Khan et al., 2010). The concept of feeding complete rations or Total

Mixed Ration (TMR) with use of locally available crop residues seems to be ideal

(Jadhav and Desmukh, 2001). The complete feed feeding system is a promising

method of ensuring supply of diet of same composition by mixing roughage and

concentrate to form a uniform mixture. The merits of complete rations are related to a

stable environment for rumen fermentation, minimal fermentation losses and

fluctuation in release of ammonia and enhancement in ultilization of low grade

roughages (Venkanna et al., 1997). Complete diet TMR system is a promising method

of improving the utilization of poor quality fibrous crop residues (Aasharekha et al.,

2006). Enhanced nitrogen balance and growth response with complete rations

containing legume straw has been reported (Bonsi et al., 1994).

Balanced feeding in terms of energy and protein optimizes growth and this

inter-relationship is additive (Chowdhury and Orskov, 1997 and Dhuria et al., 2004).

This system supplies balanced nutrients, controls the ratio of roughage to concentrate,

increase bulk density, reduces feed wastage and is easy to handle and transportation.

Feed ingredients of low palatability may also be better utilized in this feeding system

because it prevents selection of ingredients during eating. It reduces eating and

Introduction

5

rumination time and increase the resting time (Reddy et al., 2001; Raut et al., 2002

and Thirumesh et al., 2003). Beside these complete rations facilitate uniform feed

intake and enhances production and reduces the cost of feeding (Raut et al., 2002;

Hundal et al., 2004; Lailer et al., 2010). Feeding of small ruminant with complete

ration by incorporating crop residues appear to be the promising feeding system for

improving their productivity in developing countries like India (Reddy et al., 1989).

Gram (Cicer arietinum), commonly known as chickpea, is the most important

pulse crop in India with 75 % of the world acreage and production. India is the largest

producer and consumer of pulses in the world accounting for 33 per cent of world

area 22 per cent of world production. Emphasis has been given to gram straw in the

study as gram (Cicer arietinum) is one of the most important pulse crop of India and

nearly 8.95 million tonnes of gram straw is produced annually in the country. After

gram grain threshing, large amounts of straw (about 400 kg per ha) usually equal to or

more than the seed yield remain. India produces 540 million tonnes of crop residues

and coarse straw (Ramachandra et al., 2006). Gram straw could appear to be a

valuable edible bio mass due to its high nutritive value and feeding qualities and can

serve as potential feed resource during the lean period of May-July when even grasses

and vegetation are highly scarce. Feeding of crop residues particularly leguminous

straws for livestock as a major roughage source has been observed during harvest

season as they are most abundantly available. Gram straw generally contains more

protein, greater energy and lower cell wall contents than cereal straws (Kafilzadeh

and Maleki, 2011). Straw is one of the main by-products from cereal and legume

crops (Lopez et al., 2005). Lardy and Anderson (2009) reported that, gram straw is

higher in nutritive value than cereal straws (44-46% TDN and 4.5-6.5% CP).

Bampidis and Christodoulou (2011) concluded that gram straw has relatively high

Introduction

6

metabolisable energy content (7.7 MJ/Kg DM) and can be used as a ruminant feed.

Maheri-Sis et al. (2011) suggested that legume straws are usually for feeding of

ruminants. The pelleted complete diet containing gram straw as roughage source was

consumed by goat (Rekhate et al., 2004).

In view of the available information, attempt has been made to study the effect

of feeding gram straw based TMR on the performance of cattle with following

objectives-

To study the effect of wheat straw and gram straw based TMR on voluntary

feed intake.

To study the effect of wheat straw and gram straw based TMR on body

weight of cattle

To study the effect of wheat straw and gram straw based TMR on rumen

fermentation profile.

To study the effect of wheat straw and gram straw based TMR on nutrient

utilization.

To workout cost of feeding.

Review

of

Literature

II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The main objective of any livestock enterprise is to convert feedstuffs into

animal products at a faster and cheaper rate. Ruminants have become most promising

livestock in India due to ample marketing opportunities for their products.

Availability of feed and fodder, both in quantitative and qualitative terms, is one of

the major constraints in sustainable development of the livestock sector. It is well

recognized that effective utilization of crop residues as animal feed is an alternative to

overcome feed shortages for ruminant feeding (Rangerkar, 2003). Traditionally

ruminants are managed on grazing, but in view of continuous depletion of grazing

land, intensive system of rearing needs attention. To popularize intensive system it is

necessary to economize feeding by utilizing various agro-industrials by products and

agriculture crop residues (Sihag et al., 2008).

Leguminous fodder contains higher level of protein which is often deficient in

low quality fodder. They can be incorporated in small ruminant’s rations to improve

intake and productivity. Improved growth performance and wool growth responses

were observed in terms of enhanced nitrogen balance, particularly with complete

rations containing leguminous fodder. Inclusions of leguminous fodder in complete

rations of ruminants were best strategy for maximising the animal productivity

(Ramaprasad et al., 1999).

Acute shortage of grazing and browsing resources in the country can be

managed by using complete feed formulated with locally available crop residues and

agro-industrial by products including non-conventional feeds (Reddy, 1995).

Complete feed system implies to uniform mixture of all the feed ingredients processed

in such a way, so as to avoid differential selection by the animals. Stevens (1981)

Review of Literature

8

summarized that pelleting of low grade roughage type ingredients improves uniform

density, dustiness, ease of handling and reduce wastage.

Gram (Cicer arietinum), commonly known as chickpea, is the most important

pulse crop in India. India is the largest producer and consumer of pulses in the world

accounting for 33 per cent of world area 22 per cent of world production. Emphasis

has been given to gram straw in the study as gram (Cicer arietinum) is one of the

most important pulse crops of India and nearly 8.95 million tonnes of gram straw is

produced annually in the country. After gram grain threshing, large amounts of straw

(about 400 kg per ha) usually equal to or more than the seed yield remain. Gram straw

could appear to be a valuable edible bio mass due to its high nutritive value and

feeding qualities and can serve as potential feed resource during the lean period of

May-July when even grasses and vegetation are highly scarce (Singh et al., 2007)

In view of the significance of feeding wheat straw and gram straw (Cicer

arietinum) to cattle the literature is reviewed and discussed under following heads

2.1 Nutritive value of gram straw

2.2 In- vitro study

2.3 Effect on feed intake

2.4 Effect on body weight gain

2.5. Effect on Rumen fermentation profile

2.6. Effect on digestibility

2.7. Effect on feed conversion efficiency

2.8. Effect on cost of feeding


9

2.1 NUTRITIVE VALUE OF GRAM STRAW:

The value of proximate nutrients of gram straw ranged from CP 4.2 to 9.80%,

EE 1.05 to 5.50%, CF 47.40 to 27.10%, NFE 36.00 to 54.19%, total ash 4.30 to 12.60,

NDF 42.81 to 76.50% and ADF 31.45% to 59.60% on DM basis. (Aghajanzadeh et

al.,2012; Abreu et al.,1998; Devasena et al.,2014; Nagpal et al.,2005; Sihag et

al.,2008; Suresha et al.,2009). The DCP and TDN contents of gram straw complete

feed pellets were 10.85 and 55%, respectively on DM basis in goats as reported by

(Rekhate et al., 2004). The Ca and P content of gram straw 1.4 and 0.7 on DM basis.

The data for proximate composition of gram straw as quoted by different research

workers are presented in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1: Chemical composition of gram straw: (% On Dry Matter basis)

No CP EE CF NFE Total

ASH

DM OM NDF ADF References

1. 7.72 2.39 32.06 54.19 14.53 - 85.48 60.71 46.10 Suresha et al.,

2009

2. 6.05 5.50 34.30 46.15 08.80 92.18 92.00 - - Aghajanzadeh et

al., 2012

3. 5.88 1.07 44.70 39.00 9.35 - 90.65 64.60 46.22 Dhuria et al.,2009

4. 9.10 1.05 27.10 50.41 12.34 - 87.66 42.81 31.45 Nagpal et al.,

2005

5. 4.32 1.92 47.31 39.39 7.06 90.66 92.94 - - Kishor et al.,2013

6. 7.83 2.83 35.10 45.99 8.25 92.20 91.75 52.65 32.50 Rekhate et al.,

2008

7. 4.2 1.9 47.4 39.4 7.00 90.6 93.00 - - Sihag et al.,2008

8. 9.8 1.6 37.0 38.0 12.6 - 87.4 - - Devasena et al.,

2014

9. 6.1 - -- - 4.3 - 95.70 76.5 59.6 Abreu et al.,1998


10

2.2: In- Vitro Study:

Small ruminants

Raut et al. (2002) conducted in-vitro studies and evaluate four pelleted

complete feed rations, using arhar (pigeon pea) straw and concentrate mixture for in

vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD), total volatile fatty acid(TVFA), ammonical

nitrogen(NH3-N) and total gas production. The results indicated IVDMD 51.0,

45.0,49.0 and 46.0%; TVFA 12.1, 11.58, 10.83 and 9.87 mEq/l00 ml SRL; NH3-N

11.48, 10.13, 9.33 and 8.02 mg/l00 ml SRL and total gas production (48h)

175.1,170.2, 152.0 and 144.3 ml for diets I, II, III and IV, respectively. Based on the

results, diet III was selected and fed to six local non-descript male goats (8.42 ± 1.24

M and 17.18±1.60 kg B.wt.) for four weeks period. It was concluded that complete

feed pellets of arhar straw and concentrate mixture in the ratio of 60: 40 could form a

good ration for growing goats.

Odeyinka et al. (2003) conducted an in-vitro experiment on Gliricidia sepium,

Leucaena leucocephala and Cajanus cajan leaves. In vitro gas production from

incubation with rumen fluid, including the effect of polyethylene glycol (PEG) on gas

production was used. Species had significant effect on gas production (P<0.005), with

G. sepium producing the highest volume of gas and no significant difference in gas

production between L. leucocephala and C. cajan was observed. The results of the

studies on in vitro gas production are given in Table 2.2. The addition of PEG had

significant effect on the volume of gas produced by all three browse species. The

higher volume of gas produced as a result of addition of PEG indicated the presence

of phenolic compound in browse species.


11

Table.2.2. In-Vitro gas Production:

Hours Species Without PEG (ml) With PEG (ml)

3 Cajanus cajan 4.17 5.17







Dutta et al. (2007) conducted an in-vitro study using different ratios of

concentrate (C) in mash form (Crude protein- 20%; Total digestible nutrients-70%)

and ground Cajanus cajan straw (Crude protein- 10.06%; Total digestible nutrients-

45%) for the in-vitro total gas production and in-vitro dry matter digestibility.

Cajanus cajan straw and concentrate were taken for the preparation of seven pelleted

feeds namely T1 (C:R= 80:20), T2 (C:R=70:30), T3 (C:R= 60:40), T4 (C:R= 50:50),

T5 (C:R= 40:60), T6 (C:R= 30:70) and T7 (C:R= 100:00). In-vitro rumen

fermentation was studied with 0.5g of pellets, 10ml strained goat rumen liquor and 40

ml Mc Dougall's. In-vitro gas production in the sealed bottles was recorded at 4, 8, 12,

24, 36 and 48h of incubation as per modified method of Malik (1993). The incubation

medium was filtered through sintered Gooch crucible at the end (48h) of incubation of

in-vitro bottles, the residual substrates were analysed for in vitro dry matter

digestibility.

Values with different superscript in a column differ significantly (P<0.05)

Treatments IVDMD % Total gas production (ml/500mg substrate)

24h 24-48h 0-48h

T1 50.94 ± 0.79c 115.59 ± 3.40

b 47.95 ± 1.58

d 163 .54 ± 3.48

h

T2 46.46 ± 1.54b 115.99 ± 1.71

b 44.79 ± 0.88

c 160.78 ± 1.30

h

T3 44.68 ± 0.61b 106.83 ± 11.01

b 42.46 ± 0.48

bc 149.29 ± 11.21

h

T4 39.39 ± 2.50a 91.08 ± 1.30

a 41.12 ± 0.13

ab 132.20 ± 1.42

a

T5 39.71 ± 1.17a 82.99 ± 0.77

a 42.74 ± 0.81

bc 125.72 ± 0.87

a

T6 39.60 ± 0.57a 85.47 ± 0.45

a 39.38 ± 0.55

a 124.86 ± 0.68

a

T7 61.11 ± 0.77d 133.91 ± 0.64

c 53.91 ± 0.52

f 187.81 ± 0.59

c


12

IVDMD and total gas production was maximum (P<0.01) in T7 and lowest

value was recorded in T4, T5 and T6 diet. Comparatively higher IVDMD was

recorded in T1, T2 and T3 diets. Lower degradability of DM could be attributed to

addition of pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) straw in pellets. Total gas production at 24 h,

24-48 h a and up to 48 h was lower (P<0.01) due to incorporation of higher level of

Cajanus cajan straw in pellets. Minimum gas production (ml) was recorded in T6

having 70% straw, however,100% concentrate pellet produced maximum gas up to

48h of incubation, which was due to presence of readily fermentable carbohydrate in

the concentrate pellet. Reduction of total gas production in straw added pellet was

correlated with lower in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD).

Large ruminants

Konka and Kumar (2013) carried out an experiment to evaluate the nutritive

value and digestibility of locally available crop residues viz. red gram straw (RGS)

and black gram straw (BGS) by in vitro techniques using fistulated buffalo bulls. The

samples were screened for in vitro digestibilities of DM (IVDMD), CP (IVCPD),

NDF (IVNDFD), ADF (IVADFD). In vitro studies revealed that IVDMD for RGS

and BGS was 58.19 and 56.54 % while IVCPD was 65.14 and 68.06%. IVADFD was

higher (P<0.01) in BGS (55.57%) when compared to that of RGS (54.09%).

However, average IVNDFD did not differ statistically between straws under study.

The lower ADF digestibility observed in RGS than in BGS might be due to lower CP

content in RGS which might have significantly affected the ADF digestibility.

2.3: Effect on Dry matter Intake:

Small ruminants

Durgaprasad et al. (1986) formulated four complete rations by blending

groundnut haulm (10.38% CP) with a conventional concentrate mixture (14.75% CP)


13

in the ratios of 80:20 (CR-1), 60:40 (CR-2), 40:60 (CR-3) and 20:80 (CR-4). The four

diets were evaluated through 84-days growth experiment using 32 Nellore Brown

weaned lambs (11.16 kg) following a 4 × 4 Latin square design (LSD). The daily feed

intake was 535.13, 595.38, 656.19 and 593.40 g, respectively in CR-1, CR-2, CR-3

and CR-4 and the treatment differences were non-significant. It was concluded that

feeding of complete ration containing groundnut haulm and concentrate mixture in a

ratio of 40:60 (CR-3) improved dry matter intake in lambs.

Brown et al. (1988) conducted a trial on confined lactating goat and offered

napier grass and pigeon pea foliage at a level of approximately 200% of their

voluntary intake to measure intake. Daily feed intake was 1.21kg from napier grass

and 0.4kg from pigeon pea foliage.

Kumar et al. (1989) evaluated four iso-nitrogenous complete rations,

processed into mash form by incorporating cowpea hay at 70 (CR-1), 60 (CR-2), 50

(CR-3) and 40% (CR-4) as sole source of roughage. The sixteen Nellore brown

weaned ram lambs (14.34 kg av. B.wt.) were divided into 4 groups using completely

randomized design and fed respective rations for 90 days under experimental period.

Under second experiment, these rations were fed to 4 Nellore brown rams (25.98 kg

av. B.wt.). In both experiment, the animals were fed the respective rations ad-lib. The

daily dry matter intake was 902.04, 959.93, 1009.19 and 969.18g by lambs fed CR-1,

CR-2, CR-3 and CR-4, while dry matter intake/100 kg B.wt. under CR-1, CR-2, CR-3

and CR-4 was 3.46, 3.65, 3.90 and 3.78 kg, respectively. The data for dry matter

intake were comparable for all complete rations indicating that all rations were

equally palatable. The higher dry matter intake on all these complete rations than the

recommended level (2.5%) was due to ad-lib feeding. Similarly Narayanswamy et al.

(1990) reported that the dry matter intake of young ram fed complete diet containing


14

pigeon pea straw and fallen banyan tree leaves was 930.23 and 981.36 g/day,

respectively.

Ahmed et al. (1997) conducted a study on 20 lactating Sudanese Nubian goat

(av. B.wt. 24 kg and age 3-4 years) by dividing them into two equal groups viz.

control and supplemented group. Both the groups were kept under natural range

management conditions. The range pasture consist of tree Acacia seyal, Acacia

polycantha, shrubs (Leptaedenia pyrotechnia and Maerua crassifera) and grasses

(Cenchrus biflorus, Panicum terigidum). The animals in the supplemented group were

individually received 400g of legume hay mixture consist of pigeon pea, cowpea and

citoria in ratio of 5:3:2. When comprising the nutritive value of the grass pasture and

legume supplement, it was shown that the legume supplement would provide a better

diet for dairy goat during the dry season and increases the feed intake (0.233

kg/doe/day) in legume hay supplementation.

Karachi and Zengo (1998) fed pigeon pea forage, leucaena and sesbania to

growing goats as supplements to natural grazing over a two year period in two dry

and two wet seasons. The daily intakes of pigeon pea forage (63.1 to 91.4 g/head) and

leucaena (52.6 to 93.8 g/head) were consistently higher (P<0.05) than that of sesbania

(49.7 to 83.4 g/head).

Rajmane and Desmukh (1999) conducted a study on 15 adult, non-pregnant

dry goats of Osmanabadi breed to evaluate three complete rations containing sorghum

straw (C1), soyabean straw (C2) and corn cobs (C3) each at 60% level with 40% of

concentrate mixture. They divided the goat into three equal groups, having similar

body weight. The daily DMI in soyabean straw fed group was 924 g as compared to

sorghum straw (615 g) and corn cobs (782 g). The DMI was comparable on all the


15

rations. However, lower DMI in group C1 and C3 than recommended values indicated

lesser palatability of these rations compared to group C2 (soyabean straw group).

Two complete rations containing wheat straw and spent straw each at 60%

level were formulated and nutritionally evaluated by Yadav and Desmukh (2001) in

crossbred sheep. The DCP and TDN containing concentrate: roughage had 5.35%,

56.10% and 7.09%, 41.68%, respectively. The daily DMI was 0.842 and 0.892 kg for

wheat and spent straw fed groups, respectively.

Jadhav and Deshmukh (2001) evaluated two complete rations for their

nutritive value containing wheat straw (CR1) and black gram straw (CR2) each at 60%

level in 10 synthetic × Deccani non-pregnant, dry sheep having similar age (10

months) and body weight (23 kg). The daily DMI was 0.84 and 0.89 kg, respectively

in CR1 and CR2 and the effect was non-significant. The DMI did not differ

significantly between the groups. The results indicated that the complete feeds based

on wheat straw and black gram straw could maintain the sheep satisfactorily.

Rao et al. (2001) carried out an experiment to determine the DMI in lambs fed

diets containing alfalfa (Medicago sativa), cottonseed meal (Gossypium), or raw

cracked pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) seeds as the protein source. Eighteen lambs were

blocked by genotype within blocks assigned to one of the three diets. All diets were

formulated to provide similar amounts of crude protein (CP), which was equal to the

daily CP requirement for a lamb with an average body weight of 38 kg. Lambs were

confined to metabolism crates for 28-days experiment and limit-fed each diet once

daily. Dry matter intake (g/d) was also similar among all treatment group viz. alfalfa

(906), cotton seed meal (824) and raw cracked pigeon pea pigeon pea seeds (993).

Krishna and Ramaprasad (2002) evaluated four isonitrogenous complete ration

containing Stylosanthus hemata, Dolichos biflorus, Vigna sinensis and Crotolaria


16

juncea hays each at 70% level in complete rations using 6 lambs for each diet. They

reported that daily DMI was higher (P<0.05) with diet containing Stylosanthus

hemata as well as Vigna sinensis hay as compared to other.

Raut et al. (2002) evaluated the pelleted complete feed nutritionally containing

60% Cajanus cajan straw and 40% concentrate mixture (jowar 30, cotton seed cake

27, arhar chunni 30, groundnut cake 10, mineral mixture 2 and common salt 1%) in

local non-descript male goats. The daily DM intake was 743.94±41.56 g. The DMI

per 100 kg B.wt. was 4.20±0.28 kg.

Khirwar et al. (2002) conducted an experiment for evaluating the nutritive

value of green gram bhusa (straw) in adult non-lactating Beetal goats and crossbred

sheep with an average B.wt. of 27 and 19 kg. The maintenance requirement of sheep

and goat were met as per I.C.A.R feeding standards (1998). The daily DMI was 845

and 654 g for goat and sheep, respectively. The DMI (kg/100kg) was 3.16 ± 0.14 and

3.42 ± 0.06 in goat and sheep, respectively. The difference between the species for the

DMI was statistically non-significant.

Bhadane et al. (2004) conducted an experiment to assess the effect of pelleted

complete feed of varying protein levels on feed intake and nutrient utilization. Twelve

non-descript local goats were randomly divided into two treatment groups. Goats

under both the treatments were fed pelleted complete feed T1 (12% CP, 65.81% TDN)

and T2 (14% CP, 67.44% TDN) containing arhar (pigeon pea) straw as a sole

roughage for 140 days. Roughage to concentrate ratio in the two diets was maintained

at 60: 40 with arhar straw as the sole roughage. Daily dry matter intake was 4.6 and

4.9% of B.wt. under T1 and T2, respectively. It was concluded that the pelleted

complete feed T1fulfilled the nutrient requirement of goats.


17

Dhuria et al. (2004) carried out an experiment to know the effect of feeding

three iso-nitrogenous complete feeds containing 40, 50and 60 % gram straw on dry

matter intake in 18 Marwari rams. The dry matter intake was 87.9, 84.1 and 80.1 g/kg

W0.75

respectively.

Murthy and Prasad (2004) evaluated four isonitrogenous complete rations

comprised of 70% ground legume hays viz. Stylohemata (CR-1), Horse gram (CR-2),

Cowpea (CR-3) and Sunhemp (CR-4) along with 30% concentrate using 24 Nellore

male lambs (3 months, av.B.wt.14.2 ± 0.1 kg). The lambs were randomly allotted to

four treatments. During 91 days of feeding trial, the respective complete rations were

offered ad-libitum to meet the nutrient requirements as per ICAR (1985). Daily feed

intakes during trial were recorded. Dry matter intake under CR-1, CR-2, CR-3 and

CR-4 was 671, 575, 659 and 562 g/d, respectively. The dry matter intake was

significantly lower (P<0.05) in lambs fed CR-2 (horse gram) 575g/d and CR-4(sun

hemp) 562g/d as compared to those fed other complete rations.

Rekhate et al. (2004) conducted a study to evaluate arhar (pigeon pea) and

gram straw based pelleted complete feed. The 18 non-descript local goats (320 d old

and 21.8 ± 0.8 kg B.wt.) were divided into 3 equal groups and offered complete feed

pellets based either on arhar straw complete feed (ASCF), gram straw complete feed

(GSCF) or exclusive arhar straw pellets supplemented with concentrate pellets (AS-

CONC) for 110 days. The roughage to concentrate ratio was maintained at 60:40 in

all the diets. Daily dry matter intake was 1213.4 (ASCF), 1298.5 (GSCF) and 1425.2g

(AS-CONC). However %DMI under ASCFGSCF and AS-CONC was 4.3, 4.5 and

5.3 kg, respectively. The DMI was comparable in goats fed complete feed pellets

containing arhar or gram straw but was improved (P<0.01) in group fed arhar straw

pellet supplemented with concentrate pellets.


18

Rekhate et al. (2005) studied the effect of supplementation of two different

diets comprised of arhar straw (T1) and gram straw (T2) on twelve non- descript local

goats for 110 days. The goats under T1(10.55 ± 0.17 months and av.B.wt. 20.83 ±

0.83 kg) were fed arhar straw pellet and daily allowance of 300g concentrate pellet

whereas the goat under T2 (10.77 ± 0.09 months and av.B.wt.22.05 ± 1.84 kg) were

offered complete feed pellets composed of gram straw 60% and 40% concentrate. The

dry matter intake in T1 was higher (1425.19 g/d) as compared to T2 (1298.44 g/d).

DMI/100 kg body weight under T1 and T2 was 5.25 and 4.45 kg. These data suggested

that DM intake was higher for goat in T1 fed on pellets of sole arhar straw pellet

supplemented with concentrate pellets.

Nandkishor and Vidyasagar (2006) reported that sheep (10 months and

av.B.wt. 16 to 18 kg) were fed solely on gram straw ad-lib. The daily dry matter

intake was 517.41 ± 65.14g and 60.16 ± 5.54 g/kg W0.75

. The higher dry matter intake

than the standards (50.95g/kg W0.75

) might be due to the higher palatability of gram

straw.

Abdalla (2007) carried out an experiment on 24 male (3-4 months old; B.wt.

9.7±0.198 kg) Sudanese desert kids to investigate the effect of pigeon pea hay at

different dietary levels on dry matter intake. He divided the kids into four groups of

six each and used in the first experiment. Treatments A (control), B, C and D diets

contained 0, 10, 20 and 30% pigeon pea hay, respectively, replacing alfalfa hay and

part of sorghum. Average daily dry matter intake was 508.75, 468.82, 487.89 and

478.50g for groups A, B, C and D, respectively.

Rekhate et al. (2007) performed an experiment on 12 non-descript local goats

(10.6 months; av.B.wt.21.61 ± 0.78 kg) for 110 days. The goats were randomly

divided into two equal groups and were fed ad lib. sole arhar straw pellets


19

supplemented with concentrate pellets @ 300g/head/day (T1) or pelleted complete

diet containing 60% arhar straw (T2). The daily dry matter intake under T1 and T2 was

1425.19 ± 84.78 and 1213.39 ± 44.36 g respectively. The data revealed significant

reduction in DMI in goats under T2 as compared to T1 which may be attributed to

pelleted complete feed.

Dhuria et al. (2007) evaluated three isonitrogenous complete feeds containing

bajra straw at 40 (T1), 50 (T2) and 60 (T3) per cent levels using 18 Marwari rams by

conducting feeding trial of 28 days followed by the metabolism trial for 7 days. The

DMI was 87.7, 85.4, 81.8 g/kg W0.75

under T1, T2 and T3, respectively and the

differences were non significant. It was concluded that sheep could be effectively

maintained on feeding complete feed containing bajra straw up to 60% level.

Rekhate et al. (2008) divided 18 local goats in 3 groups and fed

CMF/complete mash feed (T1), GSP gram straw pellets (T2) and ASP arhar (pigeon

pea) stalk pellets (T3) having 12% CP and 60% TDN for 120 days. The daily dry

matter intake was 841.5 (T1), 957.6 (T2), 921.6g (T3). The data for daily DMI revealed

significant (P<0.01) differences among treatments.

Sihag et al. (2008) conducted a study for 120 days on 20 Munjal male lambs

(90 ± 6 days, 15.12 ± 0.23 kg B.wt.). The lambs were divided into 4 equal groups.

The control group (C) was offered conventional ration maintaining roughage (4.2%

C.P.) to concentrate (18.34% C.P.) ratio as 15:85. The conventional ration (C) was

replaced with gram straw 60, mustard cake 12, deoiled rice bran 10 and barley 5%

(GBP) OR soyabean straw 60, mustard cake 8, deoiled rice bran 9 and barley 10%

(SBP) or black gram straw 60, mustard cake 5, deoiled rice bran 9 and barley 13%

(BGBP) based pellets along with 10% molasses, 2% mineral mixture and 1% salt. All

the three treatment groups were isonitrogenous having roughage to concentrate ratio


20

60:40 and fed ad lib. The data for daily feed intake (g) were 736 (C), 766 (GBP), 611

(SBP), 798 (BGBP). Significantly lower feed intake was observed for SBP group as

compared to other treatment groups.

Chopade et al. (2010) carried out a trial on 12 non-descript local kids (4

months age), by dividing them into two equal groups (7.85, 7.58 kg B.wt.). One group

was fed on untreated soybean straw (TSS) while other was fed on 4% urea treated

soybean straw (TUSS) in the form of pelleted complete ration (R:C; 60:40) with 12%

CP and 60% TDN for 100 days. Daily DMI was significantly (P<0.01) higher in TSS

group (702.38g) than in TUSS group (680.08g).

Reddy et al. (2012) evaluated two iso-nitrogenous complete mash feeds in

which red gram straw was incorporated at 35 and 50% level maintaining total

roughage content in both the ration at 60% level. The remaining component of the

forage portion comprised of Lucaenea leaves. Thirty two weaned male kids of

Osmanabadi breed in the age group of 4 to 5 months were divided into 4 groups of

eight animals each. The experimental feeds (T1: mash with 35% Red gram straw

(RGS), T2: mash with 50% RGS, T3: Pellet with 50% RGS) were randomly assigned

to four treatment groups and animals in the respective groups were offered those feeds

for 150 days. The data for dry matter intake for T1, T2, T3 and T4 were 432.06, 420.50,

672.69 and 670.21 g/d. The significantly (P<0.01) higher feed intake on pelleted diet

might be due to soft, pliable and cooked nature of expandable extruded pellets

together with natural disinclination of goats towards fines of feed.

Roseminda et al. (2013) conducted a study comparing the growth performance

of goats fed with napier grass with and without pigeon pea forage supplementation.

The performance of ten upgraded goats was evaluated for feed consumption. The

pigeon pea variety used was ICPL 7035 with dry matter yield of 175g/plant for nine


21

months. The results showed that pigeon pea forage supplementation enhanced total

feed consumption by 9.46 kg. However, the improvements were statistically

insignificant.

Shenkute et al. (2013) studied the effect of supplementation of different level

of dried pigeon pea leaves on feed intake in browsing Arsi Bale kids in dry season.

Kids browsed freely (PP0), and/or supplemented with 66 g (PP66), 99 g (PP99) and

132 g (PP132) of sun dried pigeon pea leaves. There were significant (P<0.05)

differences in intake of dried Cajanus cajan leaves among the treatments. The daily

feed intake was 47.09, 64.8, 72.21g/kid under group PP66, PP99 and PP132,

respectively

Devsena and Ramaprasad (2014) conducted a study in two phases, a

metabolism trial with 4 local- non descript adult bucks of average body weight of 32.9

+0.45 kg and a growth trial with 12 non-descript weaner lambs of average body

weight of 13.33+ 0.62 kg for 120 days. A metabolism trial was conducted to evaluate

groundnut haulms (CR-1) and red gram bhusa (CR-2) based complete rations with

roughage: concentrate ratio of 70:30 for maintenance of adult bucks. The animals

were offered respective complete rations ad lib. The average DMI during metabolism

trial was 90.2 and 86.3 g/kg W0.75

in goat fed respective rations, which is equivalent to

3.8 and 3.6 kg/100kg body weight in groups CR-1 and CR-2, respectively. Although

non-significant differences were observed, the DMI in groups I and II indicated that

the palatability of complete rations was quite acceptable to the animals.

Large ruminants:

Jain et al. (1980) also conducted two experiments, in experiment A eight

crossbred heifers (over one year age and 200 kg B.wt.) were divided in two groups of

four each. Group I was fed on gram chuni ad-lib and the other group were fed on


22

gram chuni and wheat straw in the ratio of 2:1. The mean DM intake from gram chuni

and gram chuni + wheat straw was 2.61 and 2.72 kg/100 kg B.wt. The intake was

increased slightly but non-significantly when wheat straw replaced about one third of

the gram chuni. In experiment B, the heifers were re-randomised into two groups of

four each having the same av. B.wt. Group I was fed on arhar chuni ad-lib and Group

II were fed on arhar chuni and wheat straw in the ratio of 2:1. The mean DM intake

of group I and II was 2.44 and 2.34 kg/100kg B.wt. The mean DM intake decreased

(P>0.05) slightly when wheat straw replaced about one third of arhar chuni.

Jain et al. (1986) carried out two experiments. In experiment I, five crossbred

calves (18 months and 278 kg B.wt.) were individually fed urad chuni ad lib. In

experiment 2, five cross bred male calves (20 months and 292 kg B.wt.) were offered

weighed quantitiy of urad chuni to meet the DCP requirement. The wheat straw was

offered ad lib. as basal roughage. The mean intake of dry matter was 3.16 kg/100kg

B.wt. on sole feeding of urad chuni. It was significantly decreased to 2.75 kg/100kg

B.wt. in experiment 2 where urad chuni was fed along with wheat straw.

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of feeding crop residues

based complete rations on nutrient utilization compared to conventional system of

feeding by Kishore et al .(2013). Four Murrah buffaloes bulls (5 yrs; 350 ± 9.36 kg)

were offered three iso nitrogenous complete rations comprising of locally available

crop residues viz. maize stover (T1), red gram straw (T2) and black gram straw (T3)

and concentrate in 60:40 ratio and compared with conventional ration (C) comprising

of 5.0 kg hybrid napier grass, 4.0 kg paddy straw and 1.5 kg concentrate mixture. The

buffalo bulls were fed 6 kg each of respective complete ration and conventional

ration. The dry matter intake under C, T1, T2 and T3 was 1.80, 1.70, 1.68, 1.67

kg/100kg B.wt. The dry matter intake was similar under all the experimental groups.


23

Venkateswarlu et al. (2013) carried out a study to know the effect of feeding

complete rations containing different crop residues using four graded Murrah buffalo

bulls (6 yrs; 353 ± 8.26 kg). Four iso-nitrogenous complete rations (Roughage

concentrate ratio 60:40) were formulated using locally available crop residues viz.

jowar stover (CR-1), maize stover (CR2), red gram straw (CR3) and black gram straw

(CR4) as roughage component. All the bulls were offered 6.5 kg each of respective

complete ration to meet the nutrient requirement as per ICAR (1998). The daily dry

matter intake under CR1, CR2, CR3 and CR4 was 1.74, 1.70, 1.67 and 1.68 kg/100kg

B.wt., while dry matter intake on metabolic body weight basis was 75.12, 75.12,

75.90 and 75.30g for CR1, CR2, CR3 and CR4, respectively. The daily dry matter

intake (DMI) calculated in terms of kg/100kg BW and g/kg W0.75

was similar among

buffalo bulls fed complete rations containing different crop residues

Nagalakshmi et al. (2014) formulated three iso-nitrogenous complete diet

(roughage concentrate ratio of 50:50) using ground red gram stalks (RGS) at 30, 40

and 50 % level and compared them with a complete diet containing 50% sorghum

stover as sole conventional roughage source (control diet). These diets were evaluated

on 4 adult male Murrah buffaloes. The daily DMI under control, 30, 40, 50% RGS

groups was 6.99, 6.66, 7.00 and 7.30 kg, respectively. The dry matter intake was

comparable among all the groups.

2.4: Effect on Body Weight:

Small ruminants




weaned ram lambs (14.34 kg av. B.wt.) were divided into 4 groups following


24

completely randomized design for the period of 90 days growth experiment. Under

second experiment, these rations were fed to 4 Nellore brown rams (25.98 kg av.

B.wt.). In both experiments, the animals were fed the respective rations ad-lib. The

animals were weighed at weekly intervals. Average daily gain (g) was 121.95 ±

15.22, 111.85 ± 12.26, 114.78 ± 13.38 and 124.25 ± 16.95 for CR-1, CR-2, CR-3 and

CR-4 respectively. The average daily gain was comparable for the different rations

indicating that the level of cowpea hay in the ration had no effect on body weight

gain. The results of this study indicated that the complete ration containing 70%

cowpea hay was having appreciable gain for growing Nellore lambs under stall

feeding.

Ahmed et al. (1997) conducted a study on 20 lactating Sudanese Nubian goat

(av. B.wt. 24 kg and age 3-4 years), and the goats were divided into two equal groups

viz. control and supplemented group. Both the groups were kept under natural range

management conditions. The range pasture consist of tree Acacia seyal, Acacia

polycantha, shrubs (Leptaedenia pyrotechnia and Maerua crassifera) and grasses

(Cenchrus biflorus, Panicum terigidum). The animals in the supplemented group were

individually received 400g of legume hay mixture consist of pigeon pea, cowpea and

citoria in ratio of 5:3:2. Goats were weighed every 2 weeks for 2 month. Initial and

final body weight under grassed pasture and legume hay supplemented group were

(10.56 ± 2.8 Vs 10.62 ± 2.6kg) and (11.32 ± 2.6 Vs 11.62 ± 2.4kg), respectively. The

findings of the study revealed that the animals maintained their B.wt. on low quality

pasture. Body weight of kids was also improved, as they received more milk than the

kids of unsupplemented group. It could be concluded that goat’s production under

natural range management condition would be improved by legume hay

supplementation.


25



and two wet seasons and reported that the supplemented goats gained live-weights

faster (P<0.05) than the control animals. Live weight gains ranged from 25.5 to 43.2,

16.7 to 37.5, 14.4 to 28.3 and 6.7 to 21.6 g/head/day for goats supplemented with

pigeon pea, leucaena, sesbania and the control diets, respectively. The growth rate of

supplemented goats was significantly higher (P<0.05) than that of control groups.

A study was conducted on 15 adult, non-pregnant dry goats of Osmanabadi

breed by Ramjane and Desmukh (1999) to evaluate three complete rations containing

sorghum straw (C1), soyabean straw (C2) and corn cobs (C3) each at 60% level with

40% of concentrate mixture. They divided the goat into three groups having five goats

in each group with similar body weight. At the end of experiment, goat maintained

their body weight in groups C1 (27.04 Vs 28 kg), C2 (26.02 Vs 27.70kg) and C3

(27.80 Vs 28.30kg) indicated that complete rations based on sorghum straw, soyabean

straw and corn cobs could maintain adult Osmanabadi goat satisfactorily.

Murthy and Prasad (2004) performed a study for comparing the inclusion

level of stylo (Stylosanthus hemata; CR-1), horse gram (Dolichos biflorus; CR-2),

cowpea (Vigna sinensis; CR-3) and sunhemp (Crotolaria juncea; CR-4) hays each at

70% level using 6 lambs (3 month; av. B.wt. 14 kg) for each diet. During growth trial

of 91 days, the respective complete rations were offered ad-libitum to meet the

nutrient requirements. Average daily gain under CR-1, CR-2, CR-3 and CR-4 was 66,

81, 71 and 58g, respectively. Higher total body weight gain (7.3 kg) and significantly

higher (P<0.01) average daily gain was observed in the lambs fed complete ration

containing horse gram hay(CR-2) as compared to those fed other complete ration.


26

Based on the results, it was concluded that the ration containing horse gram hay at

70% (CR-2) was considered to be superior for sheep.

Yadav and Desmukh (2001) evaluated two complete ration containing wheat

straw (CR-1) and spent straw (CR-2) each at 60% level in crossbred sheep. The DCP

and TDN contents were 5.35, 56.10 and 7.09, 41.68% for CR-1 and CR-2,

respectively. After completing the study it was concluded that both the rations could

maintain experimental sheep with average daily gain of 50-60g.

Rao and Philips (2001) carried out an experiment to determine the effect on

body weight in lambs fed diets containing alfalfa hay (Medicago sativa), cottonseed

meal (Gossypium), or raw cracked pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) seeds as the protein

source. Eighteen lambs were blocked by genotype within blocks assigned to one of

the three diets. They reported similar body weight of lambs fed alfalfa (37.4kg), cotton

seed meal (35.9 kg) or raw cracked pigeon pea seeds (41.5 kg) in their diets.

Four iso-nitrgenous complete rations comprised of 70% level of each

stylosanthus (Stylosanthus hemata), horse gram (Dolichos biflorus), sunhemp

(Crotolaria juncea) hays each at in complete rations were formulated by Krishna and

Ramaprasad (2002). They evaluated these rations using 6 lambs for each diet. They

concluded that inclusion of) horse gram (Dolichos biflorus) hay at 70% level in

complete rations of sheep (14-20 kg B.wt.) resulted in significantly higher (P<0.01)

growth rate of 80 g/d which was in comparison to other hays.


60% pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) straw and 40% concentrate mixture (jowar 30,

cotton seed cake 27, arhar chunni 30, groundnut cake 10, mineral mixture 2 and

common salt 1%) in local non-descript male goats. The findings revealed that the


27

complete feed based on pigeon pea straw could maintain the average daily gain of

75.0 g in experimental goats.


gram straw based pelleted complete feed. The 18 non-descript local goats (320 day

old and 21.8 ± 0.8 kg B.wt.) were divided into 3 equal groups and offered complete

feed pellets based either on arhar straw(ASCF), gram straw (GSCF) or exclusive

arhar straw pellets supplemented with concentrate pellets (AS-CONC) for 110 days.

The roughage to concentrate ratio was maintained at 60:40 in all the diets. The daily

body weight gain was 83.5 (ASCF), 108.1 (GSCF) and 94.8g (AS-CONC). The daily

live weight gain was considerably higher in goats fed gram straw based pellets.

Bhadane et al. (2004) conducted a study to assess the effect of pelleted

complete feed of varying protein levels on body weight. Twelve non-descript local

goats were randomly divided into two treatment groups. Goats under both the

treatments were fed pelleted complete feed T1 (12% CP, 65.81% TDN) and T2 (14%

CP, 67.44% TDN) containing arhar (pigeon pea) straw as a sole roughage for 140

days. Roughage to concentrate ratio in the two diets was maintained at 60:40 with

arhar straw as the sole roughage. The average gain in weight for respective groups

was 75.7 (T1) and 72.9 g/d (T2) in goat fed complete feed. It was concluded that the

pelleted complete feed containing 60% arhar (pigeon pea) straw and 40% concentrate

having 12% CP and 65.81% TDN fulfilled the nutrient requirement of goats growing

at the rate of 76 g/d.


diets comprised of arhar straw (T1) and gram straw (T2) on twelve non-descript local

goats for 110 days. The goats under T1 with (10.55 ± 0.17 months and 20.83 ± 0.85

kg) and were fed arhar straw pellets and daily allowance of 300g concentrate pellet


28

whereas goat under T2 with average age (10.77 ± 0.09 months and 22.-05 ± 1.84 kg)

were offered complete feed pellets composed of gram straw 60% and concentrate

40% . Weekly body weights were recorded. The total gain recorded under T1 and T2

was 12.10 and 10.62 kg and average daily gain was 108.1 and 94.8g, respectively. It

was concluded that goat fed both the pelleted diet performed well with respect to daily

weight gain, however feeding of gram straw based pelleted complete ration having

roughage concentrate ratio 60:40 achieved daily gain of 108g may be beneficial under

stall fed conditions.

Nandkishore and Vidyasagar (2006) fed 5 adult female sheep (10 month and

av.B.wt. 16 to 18 kg) solely on gram straw ad- lib. to study the effect on body weight.

The animals were fed gram straw ad-lib and had free access to water. The average

initial and final body weight of the animals were 17.54 and 17.67 kg, respectively

which indicated that the body weights were maintained

Abdalla (2007) carried out an experiment on 24 male (3-4 months) Sudanese

desert kids to investigate the effect of inclusion of pigeon pea hay at different dietary

levels on body weight. The daily body weight gain was 70.33, 54.83, 57.50 and

53.50g for groups A (control), B (having 10% pigeon pea hay), C (20% pigeon pea

hay) and D (30% pigeon pea hay), respectively. The difference in the weight gain

between the four diets were significant (P<0.05).


(10.6 months) for 110 days. The goat (21.61 ± 0.78 kg B.wt.) were randomly divided

into two equal groups and fed ad-libitum sole arhar straw pellet supplemented with

concentrate pellets @ 300g/head/day (T1) or pelleted complete diet containing 60%

arhar straw (T2). Average daily gain under T1 and T2 was 94.83 ± 18.85 and 83.52 ±

3.43 g, respectively. The average daily gain did not show any significant variation


29

between the treatments. It was concluded on the basis of results that arhar straw

based pellet complete ration can be fed to the goats for optimum weight gain under

intensive system of management




CP) to concentrate (18.34% CP) ratio as 15:85. The conventional ration (C) was


(GBP) or soybean straw 60, mustard cake 8, deoiled rice bran 9 and barley 10%

(SBP) and black gram straw 60, mustard cake 5, deoiled rice bran 9 and barley 13%


the three rations were iso-nitrogenous having roughage to concentrate ratio of 60:40

and fed ad-lib. The daily weight gain (g/d) was 128, 95, 81 and 100g for C, GBP, SBP

and BGBP treatments respectively. The results indicated that black gram straw based

pellet diet (BGBP) was the best among the three straw based pelleted diets and straw

like gram, soya and black gram can be incorporated up to 60% in pelleted diets to

obtain the daily growth rate of 80-100g in lambs.

Rekhate et al. (2008) divided 18 local goats in 3 groups and fed

CMF/complete mash feed (T1), GSP gram straw pellets (T2) and ASP arhar (pigeon

pea) stalk pellets (T3) having 12% CP and 60% TDN for 120 days. They observed the

average daily gain (ADG) as 58.47g (T1: complete mash feed), 75.98g (T2: gram

straw pellet) and 72.94g (T3: arhar: pigeon pea stalk pellet) in kids. The average daily

gain was significantly (P<0.01) better in T2 and T3 groups as compared to control

(T1).


30




forage portion comprised of Lucaenea leaves. Thirty two weaned male kids of

Osmanabadi breed in the age group of 4 to 5 months were divided into 4 groups of

eight animals each. The experimental feeds (T1: mash with 35% red gram straw

(RGS), T2: mash with 50% RGS, T3: pellet with 35% RGS,

T4) were randomly

assigned to four treatment groups and animals in the respective groups were offered

those feeds for 150 days.. The average daily gain under T1, T2, T3 and T4 was 53.17,

44.12, 73.17 and 69.42 g, respectively. Average daily gain (ADG) in kids was also

significantly (P<0.001) influenced by feed processing while the effect of level of

inclusion of RGS was non-significant on growth rates.

Roseminda et al. (2013) conducted a study and compared the growth

performance of goats fed napier grass with and without pigeon pea forage

supplementation. They reported that pigeon pea forage supplementation improved

body weight gain by 1.07 kg in kids. However, the improvements were statistically

non-significant.


(PP66 (66g), PP99 (99 g), PP132 (132 g)) of dried pigeon pea leaves in browsing Arsi

Bale kids in dry season. Supplementation significantly (P<0.05) increased average

daily gain of kids but there was no significant (P<0.05) difference between kids

supplemented with 99 g and 132 g dried pigeon pea leaves in terms of total weight

gain. The highest weight gain was observed for kids those received PP132

(7.36g/head) and PP99 (8.06g/head) but there was no significant (P<0.05) differences

between the groups


31

Devsena and Ramaprasad (2014) conducted a study in two phases and a

metabolism trial of 7 days with 4 local non- descript adult bucks ( 32.5 ± 0.45 kg

av.B.wt.) and growth trial with 12 non- descript weaned lambs (13.33 ± 0.62 kg

av.B.wt.) for 120 days. During the growth trial they randomly divided the 12 lambs

equally into two treatment groups. The animal were offered respective experimental

feeds which comprised of ground nut haulms (C1) and gram bhusa (C2) based

complete rations with roughage : concentrate ratio of 70:30, by adding 50% of each

crop residue and 20% of sugarcane baggasse along with concentrate ingredient .All

the experimental kids were provided feed and water ad-libitum. Average daily gain

was 52.17g in C1 and 50.00 g in C2 feeding groups.

Large ruminants

Jain et al. (1980) conducted two experiments, in experiment A eight crossbred

heifers (over one year age and 200 kg B.wt.) were divided in two groups of four each.

Group I was fed on gram chuni ad-lib and the other group was fed on gram chuni and

wheat straw in the ratio of 2:1. The growth rate for group fed gram chuni was

718g/day, while group in which gram chuni partially replaced by wheat straw was

having growth rate 670 g/day. The daily gain in body weight of heifers in the gram

chuni group fully reflected the utilization of TDN for growth, partial replacement of

gram chuni with wheat straw reduced the intake of digestible protein and also reduced

the TDN intake lower than expected, so resulted in reduced growth rate. In

experiment B the heifers were re-randomised into two groups of four each having the

same av. B.wt. Group I was fed on arhar chuni ad-lib and Group II was fed on arhar

chuni and wheat straw in the ratio of 2:1. Growth rate in arhar chuni group was 575

g/day while group in which arhar chuni partially replaced wheat straw was having

growth rate of 450 g/day. The lower growth response to arhar chuni group may be


32

due to the presence of factors which are non-toxic but perhaps interfere in the

utilization of nutrients. However, under Indian conditions a daily growth rate of 400-

500g in crossbred heifers has been recognized to be adequate for satisfactory

reproductive performance. It was concluded that a diet consisting of gram chuni and

wheat straw or arhar chuni and wheat straw, in the ratio of 2:1, supplied adequate

digestible protein and TDN to support daily growth rate of 670 and 450g in crossbred

yearling heifers, respectively.

2.5: Effect on Rumen Fermentation Profile:

Small ruminants

Twelve apparently, growing, non-descript indigenous male lambs (3 to 5

months and 9.77 ± 0.33 kg B.wt.) were randomly divided into three group (1, 2, and

3) following CRD to assess the rumen fermentation parameters (Dhakad et al., 2002).

Animals in group 1 were fed a control concentrate mixture containing 40% crushed

maize, 30% de-oiled groundnut cake (DGNC), 27% wheat bran, 2% mineral mixture

and 1% common salt. In group 2 and 3, maize grain was replaced with wheat bran on

weight by weight basis at 50 and 100% levels, respectively. The rumen liquor

sampling commenced 75 days after feeding trial and was representatively

accomplished 4 hour post feeding for three consecutive days from three animals in

each group. Total-N content for group 1, 2, and 3 was 105.5, 103.4, and 131.3 mg/dl,

respectively and TCA ppt-N values were 52.2, 55.8, and 67.1 mg/dl for the group 1, 2,

and 3. These values were comparable (P > 0.05) among the three groups. The pH and

concentrations of TVFA in rumen were similar (P > 0.05) in group 1 (6.51 and 5.09

mEq/dl) and 2 (6.43 and 5.75 mEq/dl). However, pH was significantly lower (5.81) in

group 3 and TVFA concentration was significantly (P<0.05) higher in lambs fed grain

less concentrate mixture (7.07 mEq/dl group 3), The NH3-N concentrations was


33

significantly (P<0.05) higher in group 2 (34.1 mg/dl) and 3 (37.9 mg/dl) as compared

to control group (21.0 mg/dl). These results suggested that maize grain can be

replaced 100% with wheat bran without any adverse effect on rumen fermentation

pattern in growing lambs.

Raut et al. (2002) evaluated the pelleted complete feed containing 60% pigeon

pea (Cajanus cajan) straw and 40% concentrate mixture (jowar 30, cotton seed cake


local non-descript male goats. The rumen liquor pH on 0, 7, 14, 21 and 28th day of

experiment was 7.03, 6.83, 6.83, 6.98 and 6.75, respectively, whereas the NH3-N and

TVFA concentrations in SRL on the respective days were 8.76, 13.33, 14.06,

13.01and 13.37 mg/100 ml SRL and 4.01, 6.61, 8.74, 8.81 and 8.23 mEq/100 ml SRL,

respectively.

Thirumalesh et al. (2003) studied the effect of feeding bajra straw based

complete diet on performance of adult sheep in 3×3 Latin square design (LSD). The

sheep were fed experimental diets T1 (control) containing 40% ground bajra straw

and 60% concentrate mixture separately, T2 complete diet (pellet) and T3 complete

diet (mash). All the diets were offered ad lib. At the end of the each period, the SRL

samples were collected 4-times from each animal, once before feeding (0 hr) and

other after feeding at 2hr intervals. The concentration of total-N (for T1, T2, and T3

were 103, 118 and 89.50 mg/100 ml) differed significantly (P>0.05). The non-

significant differences were observed for pH (values were 6.38, 6.65 and 6.58, under

T1, T2 and T3, respectively) and TVFA concentrations in the rumen fluid were non-

significant (P>0.05) among different period of rumen liquor collection. All nitrogen

fractions (at 0, 2, 4 and 6 hrs.) were studied and the values for Total-N were 107.33,

93.55, 101.78 and 112.22 mg/100 ml, respectively; for TCA- insoluble protein N the


34

values were 18.00, 16.22, 17.70 and 19.19 mg/100 ml; for NH3-N the value were

10.40, 08.71, 9.24 and 08.09 mg/100 ml at 6 hrs. The result indicated that bajra straw

can be incorporated in complete diet of sheep as a sole source of roughage at 40%

level.

Rekhate et al. (2004) divided 18 non-descript local goats (320 days old and

21.8±0.8 kg B.wt.) in 3 equal groups and offered complete feed pellet based either on

arhar straw (ASCF), gram straw (GSCF) or exclusive arhar straw pellets

supplemented with concentrate pellets (AS-CONC) for 110 days. The roughage to

concentrate ratio was maintained at 60:40 in all the diets. The level of NH3-N (mg/dl),

TVFA (mEq/dl), total-N (mg/dl), TCA-N (mg/dl) and NPN (mg/dl) were 20.5, 9.4,

82.8, 31.6 and 51.1; 20.2, 5.3, 92.8, 41.8 and 51.2; 19.5, 7.0, 88.1, 43.5 and 44.5

under ASCF, GSCF and AS-CONC groups, respectively. The significantly (P<0.05)

lower NH3-N and NPN concentrations in rumen liquor of goats fed AS-CONC diet

were responsible for significantly (P<0.05) higher TCA-N as compared to other

groups. The highest (P<0.05) TVFA production was observed in rumen of goats fed

arhar straw based complete feed pellets as compared to other groups.

Rekhate et al. (2005) studied the effect of supplementation of the different diet

comprising of arhar straw (T1) and gram straw (T2) on 12 non-descript local goats for

110 days. The goats under T1 (10.55±0.17 months and 20.83±0.85 kg B.wt.) were fed

arhar straw pellet and daily allowance of 300g concentrate pellet, whereas goat under

T2 (10.77 ± 0.09 months and 22.05 ± 1.84 kg B.wt.) were offered complete feed

pellets comprised of gram straw 60% and concentrate 40%. At the end of experiment

rumen liquor samples were collected by Ryle’s tube 4 hour post feeding at fortnightly

intervals from all animals under experimentation and the parameters like pH, NH3-N,

TVFA, total Nitrogen, TCA precipitate soluble nitrogen and Non-protein nitrogen


35

were studied and the values for above mentioned parameters were pH ( 6.65; T1 and

6.74; T2) and NH3-N (mg/100 ml SRL) [19.53; T1and 20.17; T2] similarly values for

Total nitrogen was (mg/100 ml SRL) [88.10; T1 and 92.16; T2]. The values for TVFA

was (mEq/100 ml SRL) [6.98; T1 and 5.30; T2] and values for NPN was (mg/100 ml

SRL) [44.53; T1 and 51.20; T2]. Rumen liquor study revealed significant (P<0.01)

variation for all the parameters except for TCA precipitated nitrogen between two

treatment.

Raghuvanshi et al. (2007) compared two feeding systems viz., Stall feeding

(SF) and grazing plus supplementation (GR). The 22 sheep of Malpura breeds were

selected. The GR animals were allowed grazing for 8 hrs on a pasture and

supplemented with concentrate mixture at 250g/ head/day while SF animals received

ad libitum complete feed block (CFB). During the middle part of the experiment,

rumen liquor samples from each animal till 6 hrs Post-feeding were collected. Total –

N and NH3- N concentrations in the SRL were higher (P<0.01) in SF animals (125.0

and 42.3 mg/dl, respectively) than those of GR animals (62.8, 31.2 mg/dl,

respectively). TVFA concentrations (12.8 and 12.9 mmol/L in SF and GR animals,

respectively.) and pH (6.4 in SF animals and 6.6 in GR animals) and the values were

at par between the two groups. The findings suggested that different rumen

fermentation metabolites were within the normal range which indicated that SF

systems with incorporation of CFB can be followed for raising of sheep.

In another study Raghuvanshi et al. (2007) assessed the influence of inclusion

of dried Azardirachta indica ( NL), Albizzia lebbaek (SL) or Alinthus excelsa (AL)

leaves in pearl millet stovers (PMS) based complete feed block(CFB) diets on 48

Malpura rams, divided in four equal groups. The complete feed block (CFB) was

formulated to have roughage to concentrate ratio of 70:30. The pearl millet stover


36

(PMS) was used as basal roughage and 30 parts of PMS was replaced with dried

leaves either of NL, SL, AL and the rams were offered one of the four dietary

treatments. The rumen liquor (RL) samples from each animal were collected for two

consecutive days at 0, 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 hrs after feeding. The 0 hr sample was

drawn just before feeding. The pH of SRL was 7.03, 7.01, 7.10 in PMS, NL and SL

groups, respectively and was low (6.99) in AL (P<0.05). But total-N (52.9 mg/dl

SRL) and NH3 –N (9.34 mg/dl SRL) concentrations were higher (P<0.01) for the

ration containing AL in comparison to NL (46.61 mg/dl and 9.07 mg/dl, respectively),

PMS (45.23 mg/dl and 7.02 mg/dl, respectively), and SL (39.07 mg/dl and 8.30

mg/dl, respectively). The values for TVFA concentrations under PMS NL, SL and AL

were 9.93, 10.73, 9.94 and 10.42 mmole/100ml SRL, respectively. The TVFA levels

were similar among the rams fed different types of complete feed blocks, whereas the

concentrations of TVFA and NH3-N increased up to 6hrs post feeding and, thereafter

slowly declined. Animals in the four groups had the desired concentrations of rumen

metabolites required for fibrous diets which led to optimization of rumen

fermentation.


(10.6 months) for 110 days. The goats(21.61±0.78 kg B.wt.) were randomly divided

into two equal groups and were fed ad-libitum sole arhar straw pellets supplemented

with concentrate pellets @ 300 g/head /day (T1) or pelleted complete diet containing

60% arhar straw (T2). The rumen liquor samples from each animal was collected four

hour post feeding and analyzed for pH, NH3-N, TVFA, total nitrogen, TCA-ppt-N and

NPN. The values for T1 and T2 under both the treatments were pH (6.50± 0.095and

6.71±0.10) and NH3-N (mg/100 ml SRL) [19.53±0.48and 20.52±0.16], similarly

TVFA values were (mg/100 ml SRL) [6.98a±0.11 and 9.40

b±0.18] however, values


37

for Total N was (mg/100 ml SRL) [88.10±3.03 and 82.80±1.62]. The values for TCA-

ppt-N was (mg/100 ml SRL) [43.49±2.96 and 31.60±1.63] and for NPN was (mg/100

ml SRL) [44.53±0.74 and 51.13±0.62], respectively. Rumen fermentation profile

conducted fortnightly indicated significant variation (P<0.01) for all the parameters

between two treatments.

Rekhate et al. (2008) divided 18 Local goats in 3 groups and fed CMF

complete mash feed (T1), GSP gram straw pellets (T2) and ASP arhar (pigeon pea)

stalk pellets (T3) having 12% CP and 60.0% TDN for 120 days. The rumen liquor

profile was studied fortnightly, and revealed significant (P<0.01) differences for pH

and NPN; being higher in test groups. pH– 6.41 (T1), 6.71 (T2), 6.68 (T3), Non

protein nitrogen (NPN mg/100 ml), 44.5 (T1), 42.8 (T2), (39.95) (T3).

Twelve non-descript local kids (4 months) were divided into two equal groups

(7.85 and 7.58 kg B.wt.) by Chopade et al. (2010). One group was fed on untreated

soybean straw (TSS) while other was fed on 4% urea treated soybean straw (TUSS) in

form of pelleted complete ration (R:C; 60:40) with 12% CP and 60% TDN for 100

days. The ruminal pH, NH3-N, TVFA, total-N, TCA and NPN value were 6.62 and

6.70; 19.02 and 19.97 mg/dl SRL; 9.16 and 9.48 mEq/dl SRL; 91.07 and 98.40 mg/dl

SRL; 38.25 and 42.20 mg/dl SRL and 53.05 and 56.37 mg/dl SRL under TSS and

TUSS groups, respectively which revealed significant (P<0.05) variation between the

groups.


38

2.6: Effect on Digestibility:

Small ruminants

Durga prasad et al. (1986) formulated four complete rations by blending

groundnut haulm (10.38% CP) with a conventional concentrate mixture (14.75% CP)

in ratios of 80:20 (CR-1), 60:40 (CR-2), 40:60 (CR-3) and 20:80 (CR-4). The crude

fibre digestibility was significantly lower (P<0.05) in CR-4 (19.35%) than CR-1

(34.87%) or CR-2 (33.79%). The differences for crude fibre digestibility between CR-

3 (23.82%) and CR-4 or among complete rations CR-1 to CR-3 were not significant.

The level of concentrate mixture in the complete rations CR-1, CR-2, CR-3 and CR-4

did not affect the digestibility’s of DM (56.48, 60.39, 61.13 and 63.37%), CP (54.30,

61.12, 59.88 and57.69%), EE (59.74, 64.81, 71.98 and 69.47%) and NFE (70.60,

78.37, 79.69 and 82.09%) significantly. The nitrogen retention was significantly

higher (P<0.05) in lambs fed CR-2, CR-3 or CR-4 than those fed CR-1 and the

differences among treatments CR-2 and CR-4 were not significant. The DCP (6.21 to

8.08%) and TDN (52.94 to 62.59%) values increased as the level of concentrate

increased in the complete ration. The nutritive ratio was 1:7.5, 1:6.9, 1:6.7 and 1:6.7

under CR-1, CR-2, CR-3 and CR-4, respectively, which did not differ significantly

(P>0.05).

Brown et al. (1988) conducted a trial on confined lactating goat and offered

napier grass and pigeon pea foliage at a level of approximately 200% of their

voluntary intake and reported the average values of apparent digestibility of organic

matter, crude protein and neutral detergent fibre as 64.5, 71.4 and 64.7% for ingested

napier grass and 72.1, 87.1 and 53.3% for ingested pigeon pea foliage, respectively.

Kumar et al. (1989) evaluated four iso-nitrogenous complete rations (mash

form), prepared by incorporating cowpea hay at 70 (CR-1), 60 (CR-2), 50 (CR-3) and


39

40 % (CR-4) as a sole source of roughage. These rations were fed to 4 Nellore brown

rams (25.98 kg av. B.wt.). The animals were fed the respective rations ad-lib. The

digestibility (%) of DM, OM and CP was 63.32 ± 1.23, 63.00 ± 1.67, 64.20 ± 0.56

and 63.98 ± 3.20; 64.05± 1.53, 64.55 ± 1.56, 66.95 ± 0.96 and 66.30 ± 2.76 and72.94

± 1.82, 73.55 ± 2.22, 73.01 ± 2.98 and 77.47 ± 2.37, respectively for CR-1, CR-2,

CR-3 and CR-4. Similarly the digestibility (%) of EE, CF and NFE was 32.84 ± 1.13,

38.4 ± 8.95, 56.67 ± 5.17and63.09 ± 2.87; 42.54 ± 3.06, 39.19 ± 1.60, 37.45 ± 3.29

and 33.23 ± 3.29 and 67.72 ± 2.89, 69.38 ± 4.03, 79.24 ± 2.46and 72.05 ± 3.90,

respectively under CR-1, CR-2, CR-3 and CR-4. The digestibility (%) of NDF for

CR-1, CR-2, CR-3 and CR-4 was 57.07 ± 2.00, 49.12 ± 3.45, 46.71 ± 1.18 and 46.86

± 3.02, respectively. The increased digestibility of CP and EE with decreased

proportion of cowpea hay from CR-1 to CR-4 indicated that these fraction from

cowpea hay were less digestible compared to those from concentrate. Significantly

higher digestibility recorded for NDF with increased proportion of cowpea hay in the

ration indicated that these fractions were better utilised at higher levels of roughage in

the rations.

Reddy et al. (1998) formulated four iso-nitrogenous complete rations (CR) by

replacing groundnut haulm with sunhemp hay at 0 (CR-1), 15 (CR-2), 30 (CR-3) and

45% (CR-4) levels (w/w). These rations were evaluated using 4 Nellore brown ram

lambs (16.7 ± 0.5 kg) in a 4 × 4 Latin Square Design. Gradual increase in level of

sunhemp hay in place of groundnut haulm in complete ration CR-1 to CR-4 decreased

the digestibility’s of OM (73.53, 72.57, 69.25 and 68.59%, respectively), CF (58.54,

56.16, 54.16 and 53.69, respectively) and NFE (81.18, 79.37, 73.38 and 70.93,

respectively) linearly (P<0.01). There was proportionate increase in CP digestibility

in CR-1 to CR-4 (65.29, 66.24, 66.74 and 67.53%, respectively). The DCP and TDN


40

contents of CR-1 to CR-4 were 8.24 and 68.30; 8.33 and 68.60; 8.34 and 64.98 and

8.55 and 64.08%, respectively.

Mandal et al. (1999) divided 10 adult rams into two groups of 5 each. Control

group was maintained on gram straw and concentrate mixture in the ratio of 60:40 on

ME basis while the experimental group was fed on silage prepared by mixing

groundnut haulm and paddy straw (4:1 on fresh basis) ad-libitum as sole ration for 68

days including a metabolism trial of 6 days duration. The digestibility of DM, OM,

CP and NFE was significantly (P<0.01) higher in conventional concentrate group

(53.47, 60.70, 57.64 and 67.94%, respectively). However, the CF digestibility was

higher (P<0.01) in silage fed group (56.06%) than the other group (42.33%).The

silage fed rams consumed significantly (P<0.01) higher CP 7.79g and DCP 3.71g/kg

W0.75

than the corresponding values on conventional concentrate and gram straw

based ration (5.03g and 2.90g/kg W0.75,

respectively).

A study was conducted on 15 adult , non pregnant dry goat of Osmanabadi

breed by Ramjane and Desmukh (1999) to know the digestibility of three complete

rations containing sorghum straw (C1), soyabean straw (C2) and corn cobs (C3) each

at 60% level with 40% concentrate mixture. They divided the 15 goats into three

equal groups. The digestibility of DM, CP, CF, EE and NFE under C1, C2 and C3

was 47.31 ± 2.06, 60.16 ± 1.75 and 64.81 ± 2.78; 79.60 ± 4.26, 81.04 ± 2.01 and

85.63 ± 2.76; 49.29 ± 3.10, 58.84 ± 1.37 and 67.38 ± 3.4; 79.50 ± 2.09, 76.28 ± 2.68

and 46.81 ± 6.59 and 45.49 ± 1.41, 58.11 ± 3.45 and 63.72 ± 2.73, respectively. The

digestibility of DM, NFE (P<0.01) and CF (P<0.05) was higher on CR-3 compared to

C1 while the digestibility of EE was higher (P<0.01) on C1 compared to C3. The CP

digestibility did not vary among the groups.


41

Yadav and Desmukh (2001) evaluated two complete ration containing wheat

straw (C1) and spent straw (C2) each at 60% level in cross breed sheep. The DCP and

TDN contents were 5.35, 56.10 and 7.09, 41.68% for C1 and C2, respectively. They

reported that digestibility of DM, NFE, NDF and ADF was significantly higher on C1

than on C2.

Rao et al. (2001) carried out an experiment to determine the nutrient

digestibility in lambs fed diets that contained alfalfa (Medicago sativa), cottonseed

meal (Gossypium), or raw cracked pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) seeds as the protein

source. Eighteen lambs were blocked by genotype within blocks assigned to one of

the three diets. All diets were formulated to provide similar amounts of crude protein

(CP), which was equal to the daily CP requirement for a lamb with an average body

weight of 38 kg. They reported that the DM digestibility of alfalfa (79.2%),

cottonseed meal (79.5%), pigeon pea (79.2%) was similar in all groups (P>0.05).


60% (Cajanus cajan) straw and 40% concentrate mixture (jowar 30, cotton seed cake


local non-descript male goats. The values for DCP and TDN content of the complete

feed were 8.95 and 55.12%, respectively. The digestibility coefficients were 56.43

(DM), 66.37 (CP), 74.96 (EE), 67.56 (CF), 45.64 (NFE), 48.95 (NDF) and 40.44%

(ADF).

Odeyinka et al. (2003) conducted an in-vitro experiment using Gliricidia

sepium, Leucaena leucocephala and Cajanus cajanas substrate. In sacco DM

degradability at 24 hr incubation in rumen for G. sepium, L. leucocephala and C.

cajan was 62.86, 55.25 and 55.63%, respectively. G. sepium had statistically higher

DM degradability (P<0.01). G. sepium, L. leucocephala and C. cajan from Nigeria


42

are at least 64% degradable, they contain more than 24% crude protein and are useful

as animal feeds.


gram straw based pelleted complete feed. The 18 non-descript local goats (18; 320 d

old and 21.8 ± 0.8 kg B.wt.) were divided into 3 equal groups and offered pellets

based either on arhar straw complete feed (ASCF), gram straw complete feed (GSCF)

or exclusive arhar straw pellets supplemented with concentrate pellets (AS-CONC)

for 110 days. The roughage to concentrate ratio was maintained at 60:40 in all the

diets. The DM digestibility was 53.6, 56.2 and 51.3% in goat fed arhar (pigeon pea)

straw based complete feed (ASCF), gram straw based complete feed (GSCF) and

arhar straw pellet supplemented with concentrate (AS-CONC), respectively. The

digestibility of most of the nutrients (OM, CP and EE) was significantly higher in

goats fed gram straw based pelleted complete feed.

Bhadane et al. (2004) conducted a study to assess the effect of pelleted

complete feed of varying protein levels on digestibility. Twelve non-descript local

goats were randomly divided into two treatment groups. Goats under both the


CP, 67.44% TDN) containing arhar (pigeon pea) straw as a sole roughage for 140

days. Roughage to concentrate ratio in the two diets was maintained at 60: 40 with

arhar straw as the sole roughage. It was found that the digestibility of nutrients in the

2 diets was statistically comparable except that of (NDF) and ADF. The digestibility

of NDF and ADF was 61.1 (T1) and 65.5 (T2) and 45.2 (T1) and 49.7% (T2),

respectively. The values were (P<0.05) higher in T2 than that of T1. The reverse trend

was observed for NFE digestibility 74.2 (T1) and 71.0% (T2). Dry matter digestibility

was 66.9 (T1) and 66.2% (T2). The digestible crude protein (DCP) and total digestible


43

nutrient (TDN) values were 8.5 and 65.8% in T1 and 9.9 and 67.4% in T2 group,

respectively.



goats for 110 days. The goat under T1 (10.55 ± 0.17 months and 20.83 ± 0.85 kg

av.B.wt.) were fed arhar straw pellet and daily allowance of 300g concentrate pellet

whereas goats under T2 (10.77 ± 0.09 months and 22.05 ± 1.84 kg av.B.wt.) were

offered complete feed pellets composed of gram straw 60% and concentrate 40%.

The values for digestibility (%) of DM and OM in T1 and T2 were 51.25and 56.17;

51.31 and 58.42. Similarly digestibility of CP and CF was 59.57 and 72.77; 69.79 and

75.38, while that of EE and NFE was 67.37 and 76.33; 36.16 and39.70. Digestibility

of NDF in both the group was 57.68 and 59.90 and ADF was 58.91 and 62.21. The

digestibility coefficient for OM, CF, EE (P<0.05) and CP (P<0.01) were higher in T2

than T1.

Murthy and Prasad (2004) evaluated 4 iso-nitrogenous complete rations

comprised of 70% ground legume hays viz. CR-1;Stylohemata (Stylosanthus hemata),

CR-2; Horse gram (Dolichos biflorus), CR-3;Cowpea (Vigna sinensis) and CR-4;

Sunhemp (Crotolaria juncea) along with 30% concentrate using 24 Nellore male

lambs of 3 months age with av.B.wt. of 14.2 ± 0.1 kg and were randomly allotted to 4

treatments. During 91 days of growth trial, the respective complete rations were

offered ad-libitum to meet the nutrient requirements. The nutrient digestibility for Dry

matter (70.8, 73.7, 73.9 and 77.5%), Organic matter (72.3, 75.1, 75.5 and 78.8%),

Crude protein (71.9, 79.3, 65.1 and 77.1%), similarly digestibility of Ether extract,

crude fibre and Nitrogen free extract was 70.5, 82.8, 76.8 and 81.3%, 68.3, 69.9, 70.9

and 74.5% and 79.6, 76.8 85.5 and 80.7%, respectively under CR-1, CR-2, CR-3 and


44

CR-4 rations. Digestibility of Neutral detergent fibre and acid detergent fibre was

71.6, 75.2, 76.7 and 80.4% and 71.2, 74.5, 76.2 and 79.5%, respectively. Higher

digestibility of CP and EE in sheep fed with CR-2 was observed. Digestibility of DM,

OM, CF, NDF and ADF were higher in sheep fed CR-4 having sun hemp hay as

roughage source at 70% level.


(10.6 month of age) for 110 days. The goat with an av. b. Wt. of 21.61 ± 0.78 kg

were randomly divided into two equal groups and were fed ad-libitum sole arhar

straw pellet supplemented with concentrate pellets @ 300g/head/day (T1) or pelleted

complete diet containing 60% arhar straw (T2). The digestibility (%) of DM was

(51.25 ± 1.60 and 53.59 ± 1.31) and OM (51.31 ± 1.51 and 55.89 ± 1.45) under T1

and T2, respectively. Digestibility of CP (59.57 ± 2.57 and 64.00 ± 1.90%) and CF

(69.79 ± 1.64 and 66.36 ± 3.99%), while that of EE (67.37 ± 2.60 and 74.17 ± 2.26%)

and NFE (36.16 ± 1.67 and 45.38 ± 1.03%) under T1 and T2, respectively. The

digestibility coefficient for different nutrient found to be non-significant except for

NFE digestibility.

Abdalla (2007) carried out an experiment on 24 male (3-4 month) Sudanese

desert kids to know the digestibility of pigeon pea hay at different dietary levels. The

kids (9.7±0.198 kg av.B.wt.) were divided into four groups of six each and used in the

first experiment. Treatments A (control), B, C and D diets contained 0, 10, 20 and

30% pigeon pea hay, respectively, replacing alfalfa hay and part of sorghum. The

results exhibited no significant differences between the four groups for digestibility of

DM, OM, CP, NFE and TDN content. However, significant differences (p < 0.05)

between the four treatments in the EE and CF digestibilities were obtained. Feeding

30% pigeon pea hay has no adverse effect on animal health.


45

Dhuria et al. (2007) conducted an experiment by formulating three iso

nitrogenous complete feeds containing bajra straw at 40 (T1), 50 (T2) and 60 (T3) %

levels. These diets were evaluated using 18 Marwari rams by conducting a feeding

trial of 28 days and a metabolism trial of 7 days. The digestibility of nutrients except

NFE was comparable in all the groups. Digestibility (%) of NFE, NDF, ADF and

hemicellulose was 70.5, 48.5, 42.0 and 56.6, respectively in T1; 67.1, 49.6, 43.1 and

60.1, respectively in T2; 65.6, 52.0, 46.0 and 63.5, respectively in T3. The DCP intake

was 8.38, 7.60 and 6.79 g/kg W0.75

/d in ram fed T1, T2 and T3 complete feeds,

respectively and differed significantly. The values for TDN intake (g/kg W0.75

/d) were

53.6 in T1, 50.0 in T2 and 47.1 in T3 and differed significantly. The result indicated

that incorporation of mustard straw up to 60 % level had no adverse effect on

digestibility of nutrients and sheep could be effectively maintained on 60% level.

Sihag et al. (2008) conducted a study for 120 days and divided 20 Munjal

male lambs (90 ± 6 days, 15.12 ± 0.237 kg body weight) into 4 equal groups. The

control group (C) was offered conventional ration maintaining roughage (4.2% C.P)

to concentrate (18.34% C.P) ratio as 15:85. The conventional ration (C) was replaced

with gram straw 60, mustard cake 12, deoiled rice bran 10 and barley 5% (GBP) or

soyaben straw 60, mustard cake 8, deoiled rice bran 9 and barley 10% (SBP) and

black gram straw 60, mustard cake 5, deoiled rice bran 9 and barley 13% (BGBP)

based pellets along with 10% molasses, 2% mineral mixture and 1% salt. All the three

treatment groups were iso-nitrogenous having roughage to concentrate ratio 60:40 and

fed ad lib. The digestibility (%) of dry matter, ether extract and crude fibre for C,

GBP, SBP, BGBP was 59.5, 49.9, 48.9and 56.7; 57.1, 50.4, 48.3 and 52.2 and 51.5,

41.4, 31.9 and 53.6, respectively. Similarly digestibility of crude protein and nitrogen

free extract was 60.7, 57.4, 53.1and 55.6% and 75.3, 62.5, 66.6 and 67.5%,


46

respectively. Digestibility of Neutral detergent fibre and acid detergent fibre was 48.4,

38.1, 30.6 and 49.3% and 42.3, 32.5, 26.3 and 43.8%. The digestibility of all nutrients

was lower (P<0.05) IN GBP and SBP diets compared to C diet, may be because of

higher proportions of straw in GBP and SBP diets, whereas the differences for DM,

NDF, ADF and CP digestibility were non-significant (P>0.05) between diets C and

BGBP , indicating better utilization of black gram straw by the lambs.

Rekhate et al. (2008) divided 18 Local goats in 3 groups and fed CMF

complete mash feed (T1), GSP gram straw pellets (T2) and ASP arhar (pigeon pea)

stalk pellets (T3) having 12% CP and 60.0% TDN for 120 days. The digestibility of

DM was 54.29, 60.48 and 56.56%; crude protein was 67.08, 78.10 and 68.87%; NFE

was 64.11, 77.35 and 64.73%; ether extract was 72.52, 82.90 and 75.81% for T1, T2

and T3, respectively. The digestibility coefficients of different nutrients revealed

significant (P<0.01) differences for CP, NFE, EE and were higher in test diets as

compared to control (T1).

Devsena and Ramprasad (2014) conducted a study in two phases, a

metabolism trial of 7 days with 4 local non-descript adult bucks (av. B.wt. 32.5 ± 0.45

kg) and growth trial with 12 non-descript wean lambs (av.B.wt. 13.33 ± 0.62 kg) for

120 days. Mature animals were considered for conducting the metabolism trial to

have correct assessment of nutrient utilization, while young animals were considered

for growth trial. A 21 days preliminary period was followed by 7 days collection

period. Two complete feed CR-1 and CR-2 which comprised of groundnut haulm and

red gram bhusa based with roughage concentrate ratio 70:30 were offered ad-libitum.

The digestibility of DM, CP, CF, EE and NFE for CR-1 and CR-2 were 61.8 and

60.3% for DM), (60.3 and 63.4% for CP), (48.3 and 46.6% for CF), (70.1and 72.8%

for E.E) and (74.2and 73.6% for NFE), respectively. The digestibility coefficient of


47

various nutrients was statistically similar between two groups. However, slightly

higher digestibility of CP and EE were observed in group CR-2, while CF and NFE

digestibility were higher (P<0.05) in group CR-1.

Large ruminants

Jain et al. (1980) conducted two experiments, in experiment A eight crossbred

heifers (over one year age and 200 kg B.wt.) were divided in two groups of four.

Group I was fed on gram chuni ad-lib and the other group were fed on gram chuni

and wheat straw in the ratio of 2:1. In experiment B the heifers were re-randomised

into two groups of four each having the same av. B.wt. Group I was fed on arhar

chuni ad-lib and Group II was fed on arhar chuni and wheat straw in the ratio of 2:1.

The feeding trial lasted for 50 days, including a 7 days metabolism trial in the last

week. All the animals were kept in metabolism cages with arrangement of total urine

collection. Dry matter digestibility was significantly higher in gram chuni (59.3%)

group than arhar chuni (57.2%) group. The dry matter digestibility of both chunies

was quite satisfactory and was comparable with that of good quality fodder.

Digestibility of OM, CP, CF, EE when gram and arhar chuni was fed as sole ration

was 60.7 and 59.6%, 62.7 and 60.1%, 57.5 and 54.7% and 53.5 and 50.6%, while

digestibility of these nutrients when gram and arhar chuni replaced by wheat straw

was 55.6 and 53.5%, 56 and 55.3%, 63.2 and 57.2% and 49.9 and 48.3%. Partial

replacement of chunies by wheat straw reduced the digestibility of all nutrients,

except that of crude fibre, which was significantly higher.

Jain et al. (1986) conducted two experiments. In experiment I, five crossbred

calves (18 months and 278 kg B.wt.) were individually fed urad chuni ad lib. In

experiment 2, five cross bred male calves (20 months and 292 kg B.wt.) were offered

weighed quantity of urad chuni to meet the DCP requirement. The wheat straw was


48

offered ad lib. The digestibility of DM, CP and NFE under experiment 1 and 2 were

54.23 Vs 50.15%, 59.74 Vs 51.52% and 58.73 Vs 53.11%, respectively. Significantly

higher (P<0.01) digestibility of DM, CP and NFE was observed in experiment 1 than

in experiment 2, but CF digestibility (47.65 Vs 62.76%) was found to be higher

(P<0.01) in experiment 2 than in experiment 1. Partial replacement of urad chuni with

wheat straw lowered the digestibility of all nutrients except that of CF.

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of feeding crop residues

based complete rations on digestibility as compared to conventional system of feeding

by Kishore et al. (2013). Four Murrah buffaloes bulls (5 yrs; B.wt.350 ± 9.36 kg)

were offered three iso nitrogenous complete rations comprising of locally available

crop residues viz. Maize stover (T1), red gram straw (T2) and black gram straw (T3)

and concentrate in 60:40 ratio and compared with conventional ration (C) comprising

of 5.0 kg hybrid napier grass, 4.0 kg paddy straw and 1.5 kg concentrate mixture. The

buffalo bulls were fed 6kg each of respective complete ration and conventional ration.

The digestibility coefficient of DM and OM under control, T1, T2 and T3 were 52.86,

56.01, 53.99 and 54.20% and 57.32, 58.77, 58.19 and 57.49%, respectively.

Digestibility of DM and OM was higher (P<0.05) in T2 when compared to

conventional ration. Similarly digestibility coefficient of CP, EE and CF for control,

T1, T2 and T3 were 56.26, 66.57, 61.16 and 63.75%, 55.03, 59.36, 57.37 and 58.32%

and 48.33, 54.82, 51.75 and 52.92%. The digestibility coefficient of CP, EE and CF

were higher (P<0.01) in bulls fed complete rations as compared to conventional

ration.

Venkateswarlu et al. (2013) studied the effect of feeding complete rations

containing different crop residues using four graded Murrah buffalo bulls (6 yrs; 353

± 8.26 kg) on nutrient utilization. Four iso-nitrogenous complete rations (Roughage


49

concentrate ratio 60:40) were formulated using locally available crop residues viz.

jowar stover (CR-1), maize stover (CR2), red gram straw (CR3) and black gram straw

(CR4) as roughage component. All the bulls were offered 6.5 kg each of respective

complete ration to meet the nutrient requirement as per ICAR (1998). The

digestibility coefficients of DM, OM, CP, EE and CF under CR2 were 58.37± 0.87,

61.47 ± 0.41, 70.62 ± 0.55, 56.62 ± 0.65 and 54.94% ± 0.68. These values were

higher as compared to CR1, CR3 and CR4. Digestibility coefficients of DM, OM and

CP for CR1, CR3 and CR4 were 52.98 ± 0.356, 55.50 ± 1.19 and 48.41 ± 0.88%,

55.44 ± 0.28, 57.73 ± 0.83 and 53.85 ± 0.53%, 67.80 ± 0.69, 66.39 ± 0.80 and 64.12%

± 0.65%. Similarly digestibility of EE and CF for CR1, CR3 and CR4 was 55.22 ±

0.36, 51.24 ± 0.68 and 46.96 ± 0.74% and 44.85 ± 0.51, 48.48 ± 0.87 and 43.99 ±

0.67%, respectively.

Nagalakshmi et al. (2014) formulated three iso-nitrogenous complete diet

(roughage concentrate ratio of 50:50) using ground red gram stalks (RGS) at 30, 40

and 50 % level and compared them with a complete diet containing 50% sorghum

stover as sole conventional roughage source (control diet). These diets were evaluated

on 4 adult male Murrah buffaloes. The digestibilities of DM and OM under control,

30%, 40% and 50% RGS was 54.51, 50.70, 47.37 and 41.43% and 57.05, 52.90,

45.47 and 46.92%, respectively. The DM and OM digestibilities in male buffaloes fed

either 30 or 40% RGS based diets were comparable to control diet. Whereas,

digestibility of these nutrients were reduced (P<0.01), when RGS was included at

50% level. The CP digestibility for control, 30%, 40% and 50% RGS was 58.50,

45.84, 37.58 and 37.58%, respectively. These findings suggested that incorporation of

RGS in complete diets reduced the CP digestibility irrespective of the level of

inclusion. Similarly digestibility of CF for control, 30%, 40% and 50% RGS was


50

45.74, 43.72, 40.10 and 25.52%, respectively. The lower fibre digestibility of RGS

based diets compared to sorghum stover diet might be attributed to crop maturity and

types of crop residue. However, the digestibility of EE for control, 30%, 40% and

50% RGS (67.99, 66.07, 71.61 and 72.97) were comparable among all the diets.

2.7: Effect on Feed Conversion Efficiency:

Small ruminants

Durgaprasad et al. (1986) evaluated four complete rations prepared by

blending groundnut haulm (10.38% CP) with a conventional concentrate mixture

(14.75% CP) in ratios of 80:20 (CR-1), 60:40 (CR-2), 40:60 (CR-3) and 20:80 (CR-4)

with 32 Nellore brown weaned lambs (11.16 kg). The average feed/gain ratio for CR-

1, CR-2, CR-3 and CR-4 was 14.66, 11.65, 9.94 and 7.53, respectively. The average

feed/gain ratio was superior (P<0.05) in lambs fed CR-3 or CR-4 than those fed CR-1.

The differences in feed/gain ratio between treatments 1 and treatments 2 or among the

treatment 2 to 4 were not significant. The CP intake per kg gain was 0.71, 0.84, 0.93

and 1.14 kg under CR-1, CR-2, CR-3 and CR-4, respectively. The recommended

optimum level of groundnut haulm in the complete ration was 40%.




weaned ram lambs (14.34 kg av. B.wt.) were divided into 4 groups following

complete randomized design under 90 days growth experiment. In second experiment,

these rations were fed to 4 Nellore brown rams (25.98 kg av. B.wt.). In both

experiment, the animals were fed the respective rations adlib. Feed intake/kg gain

under CR-1, CR-2, CR-3 and CR-4 was 7.36 ± 0.84, 7.44 ± 0.29, 7.54 ± 0.87 and 7.62


51

± 0.82. Feed efficiency was comparable on all the complete rations indicating that the

level of cowpea hay in the ration had no effect on feed utilization.

Three iso-nitrogenous complete rations (CR) containing groundnut haulm at

50 (CR-1) , 60 (CR-2), 70% (CR-3) levels were formulated (Ramaprasad et al., 1999)

and evaluated using twelve growing Nellore Brown lambs (14.20 ± 0.1 kg BW). The

lambs required 10.41, 10.80 and 11.80 kg DM per kg gain (P>0.05) under CR-1, CR-

2 and C-3, respectively. These data suggested that lambs fed CR-1 or CR-2 required

less DM per unit gain in comparison to lambs fed CR-3.

Devsena and Ramaprasad (2004) conducted a study in two phases. A

metabolism trial with 4 local non-descript adult bucks (32.9 ± 0.45kg) and growth

trial with 12 non descript weaner lambs (av.B.wt. 13.33 ± 0.62 kg) for 120 days was

carried out. Weaner lambs were randomly divided into two treatment groups. The

complete rations (CR-1 and CR-2) were prepared to contain roughage: concentrate

ratio of 70:30 by adding 50% of each crop residue (Groundnut haulm; CR-1 and Red

gram bhusa; CR-2) with 20% sugarcane bagasse. The kids were offered respective

complete rations CR-1 and CR-2. Feed conversion efficiency was 23.52 and 23.48 for

CR-1 and CR-2. The feed efficiency observed in the present study in both the groups

was comparable. The proportionate intake of roughage and concentrates as complete

feed causes optimum rumen environment and hence animals showed better

performance.

Murthy and Prasad (2004) evaluated four isonitrogenous complete rations

comprised of 70% ground legume hays Viz. stylohemata (CR-1), horse gram (CR-2),

cowpea (CR-3) and sunhemp (CR-4) along with 30% concentrate, using 24 Nellore

male lambs of 3 months age with average body weight of 14.2 ± 0.1 kg, that were

randomly allotted to four treatments . During 91 days feeding trial, the respective


52

complete rations were offered ad-libitum to meet the nutrient requirements.

Significantly lower feed efficiency (P<0.05) of 7.3 was noticed in lambs fed ration

containing horse gram hay than those containing stylohemata (10.1), cowpea (9.3)

and Sunhemp (9.6). This is because of dry matter intake and body weight gains

depend upon quality of roughage source included in the rations.


(10.6 months) for 110 days. The goats (av.B.wt. 21.61 ± 0.78 kg) were randomly

divided into two equal groups and were fed ad-libitum sole arhar straw pellets

supplemented with concentrate pellet @ 300g/h/d (T1) or pelleted complete diet

containing 60% arhar straw (T2). Feed conversion efficiency of goats under both the

ration was 15.02 ± 2.67 and 14.52 ± 1.62 kg/kg gain for T1 and T2, respectively. Feed

conversion efficiency was better in T2 group may be attributed to pelleted complete

feed.




C.P) to concentrate (18.34% C.P) ratio as 15:85. The conventional ration (C) was


(GBP) or soybean straw 60, mustard cake 8, deoiled rice bran 9 and barley 10%

(SBP) and black gram straw 60, mustard cake 5, deoiled rice bran 9 and barley 13%


the three rations were iso-nitrogenous having roughage to concentrate ratio of 60:40

and fed ad lib. The feed intake/unit body weight gain was lowest (5.75) in diet C

followed by SBCP (7.53), BGBP (7.98) and GBP (8.06). These results indicated that


53

black gram straw based pelleted diet was the best among the three straw based

pelleted diets.

Wadhwani et al (2010) carried out an experiment on twenty one Marwari,

Patanwadi and Merino× Patanwadi weaner lambs (12.40 to 14.68 kg). The animals

were randomly divided into three dietary treatments on body weight basis viz. T1:

TMR-I conventional group, T2: TMR-II supplemented non conventional group I

(Azolla 20%) and T3: TMR-III supplemented non conventional group II (Azolla

20%). The DM, DCP and TDN intake (kg/kg gain) was 8.10, 1.11 and 5.09: 10.90,

1,14 and 5.83 and 13.16, 1.35 and 7.13 under TMR-II and TMR-III, respectively. The

DCP and TDN intake (kg/kg gain) observed under treatment groups did not differ

from each other, however, DM intake per kg gain was higher in non conventional

group (P<0.05).




forage portion comprised of lucaenea leaves. Thirty two weaned male kids of

Osmanabadi breed (4 to 5 months) were divided into four groups of eight animals

each. The experimental feeds (T1; mash with 35% red gram straw (RGS), T2; mash

with 50% RGS, T3; pellets with 35% RGS and T4; pellets with 50% RGS) were

randomly assigned to four treatment groups and the animals in the respective groups

were offered those feeds for 150 days. At the end of experiment, the feed conversion

efficiency (kg DM/kg gain) for T1, T2, T3 and T4 was recorded as 8.39, 9.41, 8.64

and 9.24 which were comparable among all the treatment groups.


54

2.8: Effect on Cost of Feeding:

Small ruminants

Durgaprasad et al. (1986) prepared four complete rations by blending

groundnut haulm with a conventional concentrate mixture in ratios of 80:20 (CR-1),

60:40 (CR-2), 40:60 (CR-3) and 20:80 (CR-4) and fed to 32 Nellore Brown weaned

lambs (11.16 kg). The feed cost/kg gain was ₹ 9.44, 9.18, 9.27 and 8.10 for the lambs

fed CR-1, CR-2, CR-3 and CR-4 containing 80, 60, 40 and 20% level of groundnut

haulm (P>0.05), respectively. It was concluded that a complete ration formulated with

groundnut haulm and a conventional concentrate mixture in the ratio of 20:80 was

superior and economical to other complete rations. The optimum level of inclusion of

groundnut haulm in the complete ration was 20%.




weaned ram lambs (av. B.wt. 14.34 kg) were divided into 4 groups in a 90 days

growth experiment using complete randomized design. Under second experiment,

these rations were fed to 4 Nellore brown rams (25.98 kg av. B.wt.). In both

experiment, the animals were fed the respective ration ad-lib. The cost of complete

rations per 100 kg was ₹ 102.85, 133.95, 147.05 and 160.15, respectively, for CR-1,

CR-2, CR-3 and CR-4. There was an increase of ₹ 13.10 for every decrease of 10

parts of cowpea hay from CR-1 to CR-4 due to corresponding increased proportion of

concentrates.




55

and two wet seasons and reported that cost-benefit analysis of such interventions

were proved to be economically attractive for raising goats.

Yadav and Desmukh (2001) performed an experiment of 33 days duration and

nutritionally evaluated two complete rations containing wheat straw (CR-1) and spent

straw (CR-2) each at 60% level in crossbred sheep. Feed cost (₹/kg was 2.57 for both

CR-1 and CR-2 and the feed cost/animal/day was (₹ 2.44 and 2.68, respectively in

CR-1 and CR-2. No significant difference was observed in feed cost. Higher cost of

feeding in group CR-2 indicated that spent straw increased the expenditure on

feeding.

Yadav and Sihag (2002) selected 24 lambs of about 19 kg body weight and

divided them into six groups of four each. The lambs were fed weighed quantity of

experimental concentrate mixtures containing groundnut cake as protein source (T1),

which was replaced by mustard cake and groundnut cake at 50% level (T2) while

12.5, 25, 37.5 and 50 per cent of both mustard cake and GNC cake was replaced by

extracted sunflower cake in T3, T4, T5 and T6, respectively on protein basis and gram

straw was fed ad libitum for 100 days. There was reduction in daily feeding cost (₹

4.80 vs. 4.46, 4.46, 4.37, 4.35 and 4.52), /kg gain except in T5 (₹ 43.96 vs. 41.56,

42.95, 42.45, 49.04 and 43.81) and daily cost of feeding concentrates (₹ 3.12 vs. 2.93,

2.87, 2.87, 2.85 and 2.80) in experimental groups as compared to control. It may be

concluded that groundnut cake and mustard cake could be replaced up to 50 per cent

in the dietary requirement of growing lambs with extracted sunflower cake without

any deleterious effects on feed intake and body weight gain.


of dried pigeon pea leaves on browsing Arsi Bale kids in dry season. Kids browsed

freely (PP0), and/or supplemented with 66 g (PP66), 99 g (PP99) and 132 g (PP132)


56

of sun dried pigeon pea leaves. The net profit/head under PP0, PP66, PP99 and PP132

was 5.22 ± 1.98, 17.82 ± 1.25, 21.10 ± 0.95 and 16.21 ± 0.95 ETB, respectively.

There was a significant difference among treatments for net profit and the highest net

profit was obtained for PP99 group. Therefore, supplementing kid with 99g dried

pigeon pea leaves was found to be the most profitable for rift valley kid under farmer

condition in dry season.

Materials

and

Methods

III. MATERIALS AND METHODS

The present study was conducted in two phases at Animal Nutrition

Research Station Farm, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry,

AAU, Anand, Gujarat during July to August 2016.

In phase-I, in vitro studies were conducted to arrive at the optimum level of

incorporation of gram straw with various levels of replacement of wheat straw in total

mixed ration (TMR). The TMR was prepared by mixing concentrate mixture,

wheat straw and gram straw. The concentrate and roughage ratio was kept at 45:55. The

TMR without gram straw was designated as G0 (control), gram straw was incorporated

in TMR as replacement of wheat straw @ 100, 80, 60, 40 and 20 % and were

designated as G1, G2, G3, G4, and G5, respectively, for in vitro studies. The

ingredient used for TMR formulation is given in (Plate 3.1) and their inclusion level is

given in (Table 3.1).

In phase-II, the control TMR (T1) was prepared without gram straw. The

TMR (T2) was prepared by 80% of wheat straw replaced by gram straw.

3.1. Phase-I In vitro Studies

Four cattle (150-200 kg B.W.) of similar age and uniform conformation were

selected and fed as per ICAR (1998) standards to meet their nutrient needs as donor

of rumen inoculum for in-vitro study. Rumen liquor was collected at 2 h post

feeding through a stomach tube against negative pressure created by a suction pump

(Plate 3.3). The collected rumen liquor was brought to the laboratory in a pre-warmed

(39 ± 1°C) thermos flask and strained through four layered muslin cloth and was

Materials and Methods

58

referred as Strained Rumen Liquor (SRL). Carbon dioxide gas was passed through the

SRL for one minute and was maintained at 39 ± 1oC temperature for further analysis.

The artificial saliva (McDougall buffer) for in vitro studies was prepared fresh. The

composition of artificial saliva is given in Table 3.2 and that of media for in vitro

gas production technique is given in Table 3.3.

Finely ground 500 mg TMR sample containing different levels of gram straw as

replacement of wheat straw was taken in quadruplicate in 100 ml calibrated glass

syringes as described by Menke et al. (1979).

For in vitro studies, 10 ml of SRL along with 40 ml of fresh McDougall buffer

was added to the syringes containing substrate. The syringes containing substrate

along with rumen liquor and buffer were incubated at 39 ± 1oC for 48 h in a twin

shakers water bath (Plate 3.4). After 24 h of incubation, the content of each syringe was

filtered through pre-weighed Gooch crucible, dried and weighed. Simultaneously, the

blank was also incubated without TMR sample.

Determination of in vitro Digestibility

The in vitro total gas production (IVTGP), in vitro dry matter digestibility

(IVDMD) and in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) were estimated.

3.2 Phase-II: in vivo Studies

3.2.1 Location and Experimental animals:

The trial was conducted for 35 days at Animal Nutrition Research Station,

College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, AAU, Anand. Twelve cattle were

divided into two equal groups of six animals in each group (Table 3.4)


59

Table 3.4: Grouping of animals.

Groups

Nos.

Diets

Group

Designation T1 6 Total Mixed Ration without gram straw Control

T2 6 Total Mixed Ration with gram straw gram straw

On the basis of overall results of in vitro studies and the availability of

gram straw, the level of incorporation of gram straw, it was decided to replace 80%

of wheat straw in the TMR. The ingredient composition of total mixed ration is given

in Table 3.5.

Table 3.5. Ingredient composition of total mixed ration (TMRs) offered to

Experimental cattle.

Ingredients T1 T2

Maize 10.80 10.80

Soyabean 14.85 14.85

DORB 13.50 13.50

Mineral mixture 0.90 0.90

Salt 0.45 0.45

Rovimix 0.01 0.01

Molasses 4.50 4.50

Wheat straw 55 11

Gram straw 0 44

Total 100.01 100.01

*Cost factors (Rs/kg): Maize, 13.41; Soyabean meal, 34.72; De-oiled rice bran, 9.25;

Molasses, 9.60; Mineral mixture, 60.00; Salt, 5.00; Rovimix, 365.00; wheat straw,

4.00, gram straw 4.00.


60

3.2.2 Feeding and management of experimental cattle

The experimental cattle of T1 and T2 groups were fed TMR in pellet

form. The nutrient requirements of cattle were met as per ICAR (1998) standard.

Individual feeding of all the cattle were followed (Plate 3.5). The experimental cattle

were let loose for exercise for two hours (9:00 a.m. to 11 a.m.) in the morning and

one hour (3.00 p.m. to 4 p.m.) in the afternoon under controlled conditions during

which they had free access to fresh, wholesome and clean drinking water. De-

worming of all the cattle was carried out using broad spectrum anthelmintic before

initiation of the experiment.

3.2.3 Observations recorded

3.2.3.1 Daily feed intake

The daily feed intake was recorded for each experimental cattle during the

entire experimental period.

3.2.3.2 Body weight at weekly intervals

The experimental cattle were weighed every week for two consecutive days in

the morning (8.00 a.m.) before feeding and watering during entire experimental

period using electronic weighing balance. The average of the two observations was

considered as the weekly body weight.

3.2.3.3 Digestion trial

After 35 days of experimental feeding, a digestion trial was conducted (Plate

3.6) on all the twelve experimental cattle to delineate nutrient utilization. The

arrangement for quantitative collection of faeces was made during the trial and the

Plate 3.1: Total Mixed Ration


61

collection period was of 5 days. A proper record of feed consumed and faeces voided

by each animal was maintained during the trial period

3.2.4 Sampling, Processing and Storage of TMR and Residues

The representative sample of TMRs offered and left over (LO) were kept in

previously labelled polythene bags. Hundred grams sample each from TMR and LO

was taken in aluminium tray and kept in an oven at 100 ± 2 oC, for 12 h for the

estimation of dry matter content. The dried samples were pooled over five days of

collection and then ground to pass through 2.0 mm sieve and stored in air tight

polythene containers at room temperature for further proximate and van soest

analysis.

3.2.5 Collection and Sampling of Faeces

The quantity of faeces voided by individual cattle was collected and

weighed quantitatively after every 24 h at 8.00 a.m. 1/10th part of total faeces was

taken for acid faeces in clean plastic beaker (commercial grade sulphuric acid

was added as preservative) for estimation of nitrogen content. Sample taken for

determination of dry matter content was kept in previously weighed petri-dish and

dried in hot air oven at 100 ± 2oC. The dried material obtained was subsequently

pooled, ground and secured for further analysis.

At the end of collection period, plastic beakers were weighed, acid faeces

mixed thoroughly, preserved in preservation bottles and used it for crude protein

estimation. During experimental feeding, quantity of TMR offered, LO and total

faeces voided by the experimental animals were recorded on 24 h basis. The samples

Plate 3.3: Collection of rumen liquor

Plate 3.4: In-vitro incubation of total mixed ration

Plate 3.5: Experimental cattle during digestion trial


62

of the TMR and faeces were collected and preserved in air tight bags, for further

analysis.

3.2.6 Proximate Analysis of TMR and Faeces

The samples of TMR offered, LO and faeces were analyzed for

proximate principles as per AOAC (2005) and for fiber fractions as per Van Soest et

al. (1991).

3.2.7 Rumen Studies

3.2.7.1 Collection of Rumen Liquor

The rumen liquor was collected from all the cattle as discussed in section 3.1.

3.2.7.2 Processing of Rumen Liquor

About 150 ml of rumen liquor was collected from each animal at 0, 2, 4 and 6

h post feeding through a stomach tube against negative pressure created by a suction

pump (Lane et al., 1968). The rumen liquor was immediately brought to the

laboratory and strained through four layered muslin cloth.

3.2.7.3 pH Determination

The pH of SRL was determined immediately after collection using portable

digital pH meter.

3.2.7.4 Nitrogen Fractions and Total Volatile Fatty Acids

The samples of SRL were analyzed for ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) (Pearson

and Smith, 1943) and total nitrogen by Kjeldahl’s method. Soluble nitrogen in

supernatant of SRL after centrifuging SRL was estimated by Kjeldahl’s method

while non-protein nitrogen was estimated by Trichloro-acetic acid precipitation of

SRL and estimating the N content of supernatant by Kjeldahl’s method. The


63

concentration of total VFA was determined in SRL by the steam distillation method

(Barnett and Reid, 1957), using Markham micro-distillation apparatus.

3.2.8 Cost of Feeding

The feeding cost of experimental animals under two groups was worked out

from daily feed intake and actual purchase price of feeds and fodder. The cost of

TMR (Rs/kg) in T1, and T2 was also worked out.

3.2.9 Statistical Analysis

The data generated during the experiment were subjected to one way analysis of

variance as per the methods given in Snedecor and Cochran (1994).

Plate 3.2: Experimental cattle under experiment


64

Table 3.1: Ingredient composition of total mixed ration (%) with replacement of

wheat straw by gram straw.

Ingredients G0 G1 G2 G3 G4 G5

Replacement of

wheat straw 0 100 80 60 40 20

% Replacement of wheat straw by gram straw

Wheat straw 55 0 11 22 33 44

Gram straw 0 55 44 33 22 11

Concentrate 45 45 45 45 45 45


65

Table 3.2: Composition of McDougall buffer used for in vitro studies

Sr.No. Particulars Quantity

Solution A (Micro minerals) for 100 ml

1. Calcium chloride (CaCl2.2H2O) 13.2 g

2. Manganese chloride (MnCl2.4H2O) 10.0 g

3. Cobalt chloride (CoCl2.6H2O) 1.0 g

4. Iron chloride (FeCl2.6H2O) 8.0 g

5. Distilled water (final volume) To make 100 ml

Solution B (Buffer solution)

1. Sodium hydrogen carbonate (NaHCO3) 35.0 g

2. Ammonium hydrogen carbonate ((NH4)HCO3) 4.0 g


Solution C (Macro minerals)

1. Disodium hydrogen phosphate (Na2HPO4) 5.7 g

2. Potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KH2PO4) 6.2 g

3. Magnesium sulphate (MgSO4.7H2O) 0.6 g


Resazurin solution

1. Resazurin 100 mg


Reducing solution

1. Sodium hydroxide (1N NaOH) 4 ml

2. Sodium sulphide (Na2S.9H2O) 625 mg



66

Table 3.3: Composition of media for in vitro gas production technique (IVGPT)

Particulars Quantity of different solutions and SRL

Solution A (Micro) (ml) 0.10 0.12 0.14 0.15

Solution B (Buffer) (ml) 190.23 237.78 285.34 309.12

Solution C (Macro) (ml) 190.23 237.78 285.34 309.12

Resazurin solution (ml) 0.95 1.19 1.43 1.55

Reducing solution (ml) 38.05 47.56 57.07 61.82

Distilled water (ml) 380.45 475.57 570.68 618.24

Total media (ml) 800 1000 1200 1300

Rumen liquor (ml) 400 500 600 650

Total mixture (ml) 1200 1500 1800 1950

Results

and

Discussion

67

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSSION

It is estimated that the world food requirement would double by the year 2050,

considering 2012 as the base year. A significant part of this requirement would

estimate in the developing countries, on account of increase in human population,

increase in disposable income and increase in urbanization. About two-third of this

increased demand would need to be met by improving the production efficiency of

available feed resources. Fortunately, it is only crop residues that have shown increase

in availability in the recent past in our country. Thus, the use of crop residues in

livestock feeding has now been indispensable to keep pace with inadequacy of feed

resources for farm animals. (Bhanderi, 2012).

The present study on performance of cross-bred cattle was conducted to

investigate the comparative effect of feeding gram straw and wheat straw based total

mixed ration (TMR) on feed intake, body weight, rumen fermentation pattern,

digestibility of nutrients and cost of feeding . The treatments were T1 (control group

fed wheat straw based TMR having roughage and concentrate mixture in ratio of

55:45) and T2 (treatment group fed 80% replacement of roughage by gram straw

based TMR having roughage and concentrate mixture in the ratio of 55:45). Two

studies were conducted in a phased manner to arrive at optimum level of replacement

of wheat straw and incorporation of gram straw and to assess its effect on rumen

fermentation, nutrient digestibility and cost of feeding in cross-bred cattle.

4.1. Phase-I: In vitro study: To know the optimum level of replacement of wheat

straw and incorporation of gram straw in total mixed ration

In phase-I, the TMR was prepared by mixing concentrate mixture, wheat straw

and gram straw. In present study wheat straw was replaced by gram straw at different

level as 55:0 (100% wheat straw), 0:55 (100% gram straw), 11:44 (80% gram straw),

Results and Discussion

68

22:33 (60% gram straw), 33:22 (40% gram straw) and 44:11 (20% gram straw) under

TMR T1 (control), T2, T3, T4, T5 and T6, respectively. The TMR without gram straw

was designated as G0 (control), gram straw was incorporated in TMR as replacement

of Wheat straw @ 100, 80, 60, 40 and 20% and were designated as G1, G2, G3, G4, and

G5, respectively, for determination of optimum level of replacement of wheat straw

and incorporation of gram straw based on in vitro digestibility of DM, OM and in

vitro total gas production (TGP) profile.

4.1.1: In vitro Dry Matter Digestibility (IVDMD):

The data on IVDMD of TMR without gram straw- G0 (control), and for

various treatments G1, G2, G3, G4, and G5 from in vitro study at 24 h incubation period

are presented in Table 4.1 and same data are also depicted in Figure 4.1. The average

values of in vitro dry matter digestibility at 24 h incubation for G0, G1, G2, G3, G4, and

G5 treatment groups were observed as 66.47, 69.36, 69.21, 66.50, 66.30 and 62.41%,


IVDMD in G0, G3, G4, and G5 treatment group as compared to G1 and G2 groups.

Konka and Kumar (2013) reported IVDMD of leguminous straw viz. Red

gram straw and Black gram straw by in vitro techniques using fistulated buffalo bulls.

In vitro study revealed that IVDMD for RGS and BGS was 58.19 and 56.54%.

However in present study, higher IVDMD was observed in treatment groups

(G2:69.36, G3:69.21) as compared to RGD and BGS.

Dutta et al. (2007) reported IVDMD of TMR having different ratios of

concentrate and pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) straw. Pigeon pea straw and concentrate

were taken for the preparation of seven pelleted feeds namely T1 (C: R= 80:20), T2

(C:R=70:30), T3 (C:R= 60:40), T4 (C:R= 50:50), T5 (C:R= 40:60), T6 (C:R= 30:70)

& T7 (C:R= 100:00). The values for IVDMD were 50.94, 46.46, 44.68, 39.39, 39.71,


69

39.60 and 61.11% under T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6 and T7, respectively. Significantly

higher (P<0.01) IVDMD was observed in T7 and the lowest value was observed

under T4, T5 and T6. Comparatively higher IVDMD was recorded in T1, T2 and T3.

In present study, The TMR was prepared by mixing concentrate mixture, wheat straw

and gram straw. The concentrate and roughage ratio was kept at 45:55. The TMR

without gram straw was designated as G0 (control), gram straw was incorporated in

TMR as replacement of wheat straw @ 100, 80, 60, 40 and 20 % and were designated

as G1, G2, G3, G4, and G5, respectively, for in vitro studies and IVDMD were

significantly higher in G2 and G3 group. Raut et al. (2002) reported linear decrease

in IVDMD as 51, 45, 49 and 46% for diets I, II, III and IV, respectively.

4.1.2: In vitro Organic Matter Digestibility (IVOMD):

The average values of IVOMD at 24h incubation for various levels of gram

straw replacement in TMR with wheat straw are presented in Table 4.1 and the same

data are presented graphically in Figure 4.2. The average values of IVOMD at 24 h

incubation for G0, G1, G2, G3, G4, and G5 treatment groups were observed as 65.84,

69.08, 69.14, 66.52, 65.24 and 65.82%, respectively. The statistical analysis of data

revealed significant (P<0.05) decrease in IVOMD in G0, G3, G4 and G5 treatment

group as compared to G1 and G2 groups.

4.1.3: In vitro Total Gas Production (IVTGP):

The average values for in vitro total gas production at 24 h incubation for G0,

G1, G2, G3, G4, and G5 treatment groups were observed as 99.0, 97.5, 97.0, 96.75, 96.75

and 97.25 ml/500 mg TMR, respectively (Table 4.2). No significant differences

(P<0.05) in gas production were observed among the experimental groups.

Dutta et al. (2007) reported IVTGP of TMR having different ratios of

concentrate and Cajanus cajan straw. Pigeon pea straw and concentrate were taken


70

for the preparation of seven pelleted feeds namely T1 (C:R= 80:20), T2 (C R=70:30),

T3 (C:R= 60:40), T4 (C:R= 50:50), T5 (C:R= 40:60), T6 (C:R= 30:70) & T7 (C:R=

100:00). The value for IVDMD was 50.94, 46.46, 44.68, 39.39, 39.71, 39.60 and

61.11% under T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6 and T7, respectively. Gas production under

different TM₹ was 115.59 (T1), 115.99 (T2), 106.83 (T3), 91.08 (T4), 82.99 (T5),

85.47 (T6) and 133.91 ml (T7). Minimum gas production was recorded in T6 which is

having similar roughage concentrate ratio as taken in our treatment group G3,

however, gas production in our groups is slight less than T6 group mentioned in

above study. Raut et al. (2002) reported that gas production at 48 h for complete feed

containing arhar straw and concentrate mixture in different ratio was decreased and

values were 175.1, 170.2, 152.0 and 144.3 ml for diet I, II III and IV, respectively.

Odeyinka et al. (2003) reported in vitro gas production from incubation with

rumen fluid, including the effect of polyethylene glycol (PEG) on Gliricidia sepium,

Leucaena leucocephala and Cajanus cajan leaves. The gas produced under incubation

of 24 hr by Gliricidia sepium, Leucaena leucocephala and Cajanus cajan leaves with

and without PEG was observed as 21.52 and 24.15, 21.02 and 23.17, 17.66 and 21.34,

respectively. Species had significant effect on gas production (P<0.005), with G.

sepium producing the highest volume of gas and no significant difference in gas

production between L. leucocephala and C. cajan was observed. The higher volume

of gas produced as a result of addition of PEG indicated the presence of phenolic

compound in browse species.

Figure 4.1: In vitro DMD of TMR incorporated with different level of gram straw.

Figure 4.2: In vitro OMD of TMR incorporated with different level of gram straw.

Figure 4.3: In vitro TGP of TMR incorporated with different level of gram straw.

64

66

68

70

G0 G1 G2 G3 G4 G5

DMD

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

G0 G1 G2 G3 G4 G5

OMD

95

96

97

98

99

G0 G1 G2 G3 G4 G5

TGP


71

Table 4.1: The average pH, IVDMD%, IVOMD% and TGP (ml) during in

vitro study (24 h incubation)

Group TGP IVDMD IVOMD

G0 99.0±0.41

66.47±0.53a

65.84±0.61a

G1 97.5±0.65 69.36±0.36b

69.08±0.47b

G2 97.5±0.65

69.21±0.59b

69.14±0.48b

G3 96.75±1.11

66.50±0.25a

65.52±0.33a

G4 96.75±0.63 66.30±0.26a

65.24±0.80 a

G5 97.25±0.75 66.41±0.20a

65.82±0.17 a

P value 0.311 0.000 0.000 ab

Means with different superscripts in a column for a parameter differ significantly

(P<0.05)

4.2. Dry Matter and Nutrient Intake:

4.2.1: Daily dry matter intake:

The data for average daily dry matter intake (kg) of cattle during the

experimental period under both the treatments are given in Table 4.2. The average

weekly data are also depicted in Figure 4.4.

Table 4.2: Average daily dry matter intake (kg/animal) of cattle under feeding

experiment

Animal No. Treatments

T1 T2

1 3.27 3.70

2 3.58 3.97

3 3.95 4.23

4 4.02 4.76

5 4.10 4.23

6 4.37 4.23

Av.(kg) ± SE 4.13 ± 0.15 4.19 ±0.14

't' value 0.551 NS

The result revealed that the average daily DM consumed by cattle was 4.13

±0.15 and 4.19 ±0.14 kg under T1 and T2, respectively during the experimental period

and the treatment differences were non-significant.

3.60

3.80

4.00

4.20

4.40

1 2 3 4 5

Dry

Ma

tter

inta

ke (

kg

)

Weeks

Figure 4.4: Average DM intake (kg/d) by cattle under feeding

experiment

T1

T2


72

Nagalakshmi et al. (2014) reported daily DMI of red gram stalks (pigeon pea)

at the rate of 30, 40 and 50% and used sorghum stover as a sole conventional

roughage source (control diet) and kept the roughage and concentrate ratio (50:50).

These diets were evaluated on 4 adult male Murrah buffaloes. The daily DMI under

control, 30, 40, 50% RGS groups was 6.99, 6.66, 7.00 and 7.30 kg, respectively. The

dry matter intake was comparable among all the groups. Similarly in present study as

we replace the wheat straw in treatment (T2) group using 80% level of gram straw by

roughage and the values under treatments (4.13 and 4.19 kg) were non-significant

difference in daily DMI.



goats for 110 days. The goat under T1 were fed arhar straw pellet and daily allowance

of 300g concentrate pellet whereas the goat under T2 were offered complete feed

pellet composed of gram straw 60% and 40% concentrate. . The daily dry matter

intake in T1 was higher (1425.19 g) as compared to T2 (1298.44 g).

Rekhate et al. (2004) evaluated arhar (pigeon pea) and gram straw based

pelleted complete feed. The goats were offered complete feed pellets based either on

arhar straw complete feed (ASCF), gram straw complete feed (GSCF) or exclusive

arhar straw pellets supplemented with concentrate pellets (AS-CONC). The roughage

to concentrate ratio was maintained at 60:40 in all the diets. Daily dry matter intake

was 1213.4 (ASCF), 1298.5 (GSCF) and 1425.2g (AS-CONC) which in contrast to

present study higher in gram straw complete feed as compared to arhar straw based

pelleted group. Similarly Rekhate et al. (2008) reported lower DMI in goat fed ASP

arhar (pigeon pea) stalk pellets group as compared to GSP gram straw pellets. The


73

values were observed as 957.6 (GSP) and 921.6g/d (ASP). The data for daily DMI

revealed significant (P<0.01) differences among treatments.

4.2.2: Dry matter intake (kg/100kg BW):

The average data on percent dry matter intake of two treatments are presented

in Table 4.3.

Table 4.3: Average daily dry matter intake (kg/100 kg BW) of cattle under

feeding experiment


T1 T2

1 2.53 2.51

2 2.51 2.51

3 2.54 2.52

4 2.52 2.54

5 2.55 2.61

6 2.58 2.46

Av. ± SE 2.54 ±0.01 2.52 ±0.02

't' value 0.542 NS

The result given in Table 4.3 revealed that dry matter intake during the

experimental period was 2.54 ±0.01 and 2.52 ±0.02kg/100 kg BW in T1 and T2,

respectively. The treatment difference was statistically non-significant (P>0.05).

Jain et al. (1980) reported more or less similar findings on % DM in

experiment A in which the heifers were randomised into two groups. Group I was fed

on gram chuni ad-lib and Group II was fed on gram chuni and wheat straw in the ratio

of 2:1. The mean DM intake of group I and II was 2.61 and 2.72 kg/100kg b.wt. The

mean DM intake increased slightly but non-significantly when wheat straw replaced

about one third of gram chuni.

Venkateswarlu et al. (2013) reported non-significant (P>0.05) difference in %

DMI of diet comprising of locally available crop residues viz. Jowar stover (CR-1),

maize stover (CR2), red gram straw (CR3) and black gram straw (CR4) as roughage


74

component (Roughage concentrate ratio 60:40) using four graded Murrah buffalo

bulls. The daily dry matter intake under CR1, CR2, CR3 and CR4 was 1.74, 1.70,

1.67 and 1.68 kg/100kg BW. Similarly Kishore et al. (2013) observed non-significant

difference in % DMI of diet comprising of locally available crop residues viz. Maize

stover (T1), red gram starw (T2) and black gram straw (T3) and concentrate in 60:40

ratio and compared with conventional ration (C) comprising of 5.0 kg hybrid napier

grass, 4.0 kg paddy straw and 1.5 kg concentrate mixture evaluated using four Murrah

buffaloes bulls. The dry matter intake under C, T1, T2 and T3 was 1.8, 1.7, 1.68, 1.67

kg/100kg BW. The dry matter intake was similar under all the experimental groups.

These findings were observed similar to present study as present study also revealed

non-significant difference on % DM between treatments.

Similar findings were also observed by Devsena and Ramaprasad (2014) as

they reported non-significant difference on % DMI in in goat fed groundnut haulms

(CR-1) and red gram bhusa (CR-2) based complete rations with roughage:

concentrate ratio of 70:30 for maintenance of adult bucks. The average % DMI was

3.8 & 3.6 kg/100kg body weight in groups CR-1 & CR-2, respectively.

Rekhate et al. (2005) studied thr effect of supplementation of two different


goats for 110 days. The goat under T1 were fed arhar straw pellet and daily allowance

of 300g concentrate pellet whereas the goat under T2 were offered complete feed

pellet composed of gram straw 60% and 40% concentrate. The % dry matter intake in

T1 and T2 was 5.25 and 4.25 kg. Gram straw based diet has lower DMI/100 kg than

arhar straw based diet

4.2.3: Dry matter intake (kg/kg W0.75

):


75

The average data for DM intake per kg metabolic body weight basis are

presented in Table 4.4

Table 4.4: Average daily dry matter intake (g/kg W0.75

) of cattle under feeding

experiment.


T1 T2

1 86.63 87.79

2 88.19 89.11

3 92.76 90.98

4 91.66 94.44

5 92.18 93.87

6 94.47 89.28

Av. ± SE 90.98 ± 1.21 90.91 ± 1.11

't' value 0.058 NS

The result revealed that average dry matter intake was 90.98 ± 1.21 and 90.91

± 1.11 g/kg W0.75

for cattle under T1 and T2, respectively. The treatment differences

were statistically non-significant.

The dry matter intake in Murrah buffalo bulls on metabolic body weight basis

was 75.12, 75.12, 75.90 and 75.30g for CR1, CR2, CR3 and CR4, respectively, as

reported by Venkateswarlu et al. (2013) was non-significant (P>0.05). Diet

comprising of locally available crop residues viz. Jowar stover (CR-1), maize stover

(CR2), red gram straw (CR3) and black gram straw (CR4) as roughage component

(Roughage concentrate ratio 60:40) . Similar findings were also observed by Devsena

and Ramaprasad (2014) as they reported non-significant difference on dry matter

intake on metabolic body weight basis in goat fed groundnut haulms (CR-1) and red

gram bhusa (CR-2) based complete rations with roughage: concentrate ratio of 70:30

for maintenance of adult bucks. The average DMI was 90.2 and 86.3 g/kg W0.75

in

groups CR-1 & CR-2, respectively. Nandkishor and Vidyasagar (2006) also reported


76

the DMI on metabolic body weight in sheep were fed solely gram straw ad lib. The

DMI was 517.41 and 60.16 g/Kg W0.75

.

Similarly in present studies the results revealed non-significant difference on

dry matter intake on metabolic body weight basis between the treatments.

4.2.4: Crude Protein intake:

The average data on daily CP intake by cattle under two treatments are

presented in Table 4.5 and the same data are also depicted in Figure 4.5

Table 4.5: Average daily C.P intake (g) by cattle under feeding experiment

The result revealed that average daily CP intake by cattle was 476.66 ± 17.71

and 510.24 ± 17.49 g in T1 and T2, respectively. Average daily CP intake was

significantly increase in T2 group as compare to T1 group.

4.2.5: Digestible Crude Protein intake:

The data on average daily DCP intake by cattle under two treatments are

presented in Table 4.6 and the same data are also depicted in Figure 4.5


T1 T2

1 407.11 451.16

2 447.83 483.38

3 478.36 515.61

4 498.72 580.06

5 498.72 515.61

6 529.25 515.61

Av. ± SE 476.66 ± 17.71 510.24 ± 17.49

't' value 2.623 (P<0.05)


77

Table 4.6: Average daily DCP intake (g) by cattle under feeding experiment


T1 T2

1 255.53 292.09

2 281.08 312.96

3 300.24 333.82

4 313.02 375.55

5 313.02 333.82

6 332.18 333.82

Av. ± SE 299.18 ± 11.12 330.34 ± 11.32

't' value 3.818 (P<0.05)

The data in table 4.6 indicated that the DCP consumption was found higher

under T2 (330.34g) as compared to T1 (299.18g). The treatment differences were

found significant.

4.2.6: Total digestible nutrient (TDN) intake:

The data for average TDN intake (kg/day/animal) of individual cattle under

each treatment are presented in Table 4.7 and the same data are also depicted in

Figure 4.5.

Table 4.7: Average daily TDN intake (kg) by cattle under feeding experiment


T1 T2

1 1.90 2.07

2 2.09 2.22

3 2.24 2.37

4 2.33 2.66

5 2.33 2.37

6 2.47 2.37

Av. ± SE 2.23 ± 0.08 2.34 ± 0.08

't' value 1.944 (P<0.05)


78

The result revealed that average daily TDN intake was higher in T2 group

(2.34 kg) as compared to T1 group (2.23) and the treatment differences were

statistically significant (P<0.05).

4.3. Growth Studies:

4.3.1 Body weight gain:

The data for total gain in body weight of individual calves under two

treatments during experimental period of 5 weeks are given in Table 4.8. The data for

weekly body weight gain are depicted in Figure 4.6

Table 4.8: Total body weight gain (kg) and average daily gain (g) in cattle under

feeding experiment


T1 T2

1 13.00 21.50

2 14.00 20.00

3 18.00 20.00

4 17.00 16.50

5 16.00 19.00

6 17.00 19.00

Av. Total gain (kg) ± SE 15.83 ± 0.79 19.33 ± 0.67

Av. Daily gain (g) ± SE 452.38 ± 22.64 552.38 ± 19.40

't' value 2.658 (P<0.05)

Average total gain in weight of cattle during entire experimental period of 5

weeks was 15.83 ± 0.79 and 19.33 ± 0.69 kg with average daily gain of 452.38 ±

22.64 and 552.38 ± 11.40 g, respectively in T1 and T2 groups. Total weight gain and

daily weight gain was found to be increased for T2 during experimental period and the

treatment differences were also significant.

Jain et al. (1980) observed the live weight gain for heifers under group I fed

on gram chuni ad-lib and group II fed on gram chuni and wheat straw in the ratio of

2:1. Growth rate in gram chuni group was 718 g/day while group in which gram chuni

140.00

145.00

150.00

155.00

160.00

165.00

170.00

1 2 3 4 5 6

Week

ly b

od

y w

eig

ht

(kg

)

Weeks

Figure 4.5: Weekly body weight (kg) of cattle under feeding

experiment

T1

T2


79

partially replaced wheat straw was having growth rate 670 g/day. These findings are

similar to present study where body weight gain and average daily gain was more in

total mixed ration having gram straw used as a roughage source.

Rekhate et al. (2004) also reported highest weight gain in goats fed gram straw

(GSCF) based complete feed pellets as compared to other groups. The values for daily

body weight gain under different treatment were 83.5, 108.1 and 94.8g for diets based

either on arhar straw (ASCF), gram straw (GSCF) or exclusive arhar straw pellets

supplemented with concentrate pellets (AS-CONC). Similarly Rekhate et al. (2007)

reported non-significant variation between the treatments fed ad-libitum sole arhar

straw pellet supplemented with concentrate pellets @ 300g/head/day (T1) or pelleted

complete diet containing 60% arhar straw (T2). Average daily gain under T1 and T2

was 94.83 ± 18.85 and 83.52 ± 3.43 g, respectively.

Similar findings were also observed by Reddy et al. (2012) as they reported

significantly higher average daily gain in the group fed pelleted legume (red gram

straw) at 50% level (T3) as compared to other group in which red gram straw used in

mash form at 35 (T1) and 50% (T2) level. The average daily gain under T1, T2, and

T3 was 53.17, 44.12 and 73.17, respectively. Average daily gain (ADG) in kids also

significantly (P<0.001) influenced by feed processing while the effect of level of

inclusion of RGS was non-significant on growth rates.

Roseminda et al. (2013) conducted a study and compared the growth

performance of goats fed napier grass with and without pigeon pea supplementation.

They reported that legume (pigeon pea) straw supplementation improved body weight

gain by 1.07 kg in kids. However, the improvements were statistically non-significant.

Similarly Rekhate et al. (2008) reported that average daily gain was

significantly (P<0.01) better in T2 (gram straw pellets) and T3 (arhar stalk pellets)


80

groups as compared to control (complete mash feed) T1. The value for average daily

gain (ADG) was 58.47g (T1: complete mash feed), 75.98g (T2: gram straw pellet) and

72.94g (T3: arhar: pigeon pea stalk pellet) in kids.

Rekhate et al. (2005) reported lower value of body weight gain in feeding of

gram straw based pelleted complete ration as compare to arhar straw based pelleted

complete ration. The roughage concentrate ratio of 60:40 achieved body weight gain

108g/d may be beneficial under stall fed conditions while observed the effect of

supplementation of two different diets comprised of arhar starw (T1) and gram strtaw

(T2) on goats. The goats under T1 were fed arhar straw pellets and daily allowance of

300g concentrate pellet whereas goat under T2 were offered complete feed pellets

composed of gram straw 60% and concentrate 40%. The total gain recorded in two

groups T1 and T2 was 12.10 and 10.62 kg and average daily gain was 108.1 and 94.8g,

respectively.

4.4. Rumen fermentation pattern of experimental cattle:

For studying the rumen fermentation pattern in the rumen of cattle fed respective

TMR, the rumen liquor sample were collected before feeding and at different post

feeding intervals. The changes occurring in rumen pH, total volatile fatty acids,

ammonia nitrogen, total nitrogen, soluble nitrogen, protein nitrogen and non-protein

nitrogen concentrations were determined from the strained rumen liquor (SRL)

samples.

4.4.1: SRL pH:

The average pH value of SRL under two treatments and at different hours of feeding

are given in Table 4.10 along with ANOVA. The same data are also depicted in

Figure 4.6


81

Table 4.9: Average periodical changes in strained rumen liquor pH of cattle

under feeding experiment.

Hours of sampling

Treatments Av. ± SE

T1 T2

0 6.70 6.97 6.83 ±0.19

2 6.38 6.65 6.51 ± 0.19

4 6.49 6.58 6.53± 0.06

6 6.51 6.60 6.55 ± 0.06

Av. ± SE 6.50 ± 0.13 6.70 ± 0.18 6.60 ± 0.23

ANOVA

SV df SS MSS Cal. F

Treatment (T) 1 0.261 0.261 2.269 NS

Periods (P) 3 0.546 0.182 1.582 NS

T × P 3 0.066 0.022 0.190 NS

Error 24 2.760 0115

Total 31 3.633

NS = Non significant

The average SRL pH values were 6.50 and 6.70 under T1 and T2, respectively.

The pH of T1 and T2 was found more or less similar. The differences for treatment and

hours of feeding for SRL pH were non-significant. Similarly the difference for

treatment and period interactions was also non-significant (P>0.05).

It is apparent from the data that SRL pH dropped at 2 hrs and 4 hrs after post

feeding under both the treatments. The drop in rumen pH is attributed to the increased

concentrations of TVFA during same period of post feeding as evident from figure 4.5

and data of TVFA given in table 4.11.

Thirumalesh et al. (2003) also reported no significant difference of diet on

SRL pH. The pH values were 6.38, 6.65 and 6.58 for T1 (40% ground bajra straw

and 60% concentrate mixture), T2 (complete pellet diet) and T3 (complete mash diet).

Rekhate et al. (2005) reported the effect of supplementation of the different

diet comprising of arhar straw (T1) and gram straw (T2) on 12 non-descript local goat

for 110 days. At the end of experiment rumen liquor sample were collected in 4 hour


82

post feeding at fortnightly intervals from all animal under experimentation. The

fortnightly rumen liquor pH was 6.74 (T2) in gram straw based diet which higher than

6.65 (T2) in arhar straw based diet group. In present study SRL pH 6.70 (T2), which is

more or less similar than present study.

In contrast to present study, Rekhate et al. (2008) fed complete mash feed

(T1), gram straw pellets (T2) and arhar (pigeon pea) stalk pellets (T3) to 18 local

goats. The fortnightly rumen liquor pH revealed higher SRL pH value in gram straw

pellets (T2) diet group. Value under present study was similar as the value reported.

Rekhate et al. (2007) studied the rumen liquor pH of goat fed ad-libitum sole

arhar straw pellets supplemented with concentrate pellets daily@ 300 g/head (T1) or

pelleted complete diet containing 60% arhar straw (T2) after 4 hrs post feeding . The

values for pH under T1 and T2 were 6.50 and 6.71 and differed significantly (P<0.01).

4.4.2: Total volatile fatty acids (TVFAs):

The average periodical changes in TVFAs concentration of cattle under two

treatments are given in Table 4.11 along with statistical analysis. The average

periodical changes in TVFAs production for two treatments are also depicted in

Figure 4.7.

Table 4.10: Average total volatile fatty acids concentration (mM/dL) in strained

rumen liquor of cattle under feeding experiment.

Hours of sampling


T1 T2

0 8.20 9.30 8.78 ± 0.55

2 16.54 19.60 18.09 ± 1.55

4 17.50 20.00 18.74 ± 1.28

6 15.70 16.60 16.13 ± 0.44

Av. ± SE 14.48 ± 2.11 16.39 ± 2.47 15.43 ± 2.34

Figure 4.6: Average periodical changes in SRL-pH of cattle under feeding

experiment

Figure 4.7: Average periodical changes in SRL-TVFA (mM/100 ml) of cattle


6.00

6.20

6.40

6.60

6.80

7.00

7.20

0 hr 2 hr 4 hr 6 hr

SR

L p

H

Hour of sampling

T1

T2

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

0 hr 2 hr 4 hr 6 hr

TV

FA

(M

mo

l/d

l)

Hours of sampling

T1

T2


83

ANOVA

SV Df SS MSS Cal. F

Treatment (T) 1 29.338 29.388 9.098**

Periods (P) 3 501.929 167.310 51.887**

T × P 3 7.169 2.390 0.741 NS

Error 24 77.388 3.224

Total 31 615.823

NS = Non significant, **P<0.01

The average concentration of TVFAs in SRL was 14.48 and 16.39 mM/dl

(P<0.05) under T1 and T2, respectively. However, there was a sharp increase in TVFA

concentration at 2 hrs and found maximum at 4 hrs of post feeding which is shown

graphically in Figure 4.7 under both treatments. Maximum values of TVFAs found at

4 hrs of post feeding were observed as 17.50 and 20.00 mM/dl of SRL under T1 and

T2, which is also associated with drop in rumen pH. The periodical changes were

highly significant (P<0.01). The average TVFA concentration was found to be

slightly lower in T1 than T2 group. The statistical differences due to treatments along

with treatment and period interactions were non-significant.

Rekhate et al. (2005) reported TVFA production in rumen of goats fed arhar

straw based and gram straw based complete feed pellets. The values for molar

proportion of TVFA under different treatment were 9.4, 5.3 and 7.0 mEq/dl for diet

containing based either on arhar straw (ASCF), gram straw (GSCF) or exclusive

arhar straw pellets supplemented with concentrate pellets (AS-CONC). Peak TVFA

concentration in gram straw based complete feed pellets (GSCF) under present study

is higher than the values reported there by researcher.

Raut et al. (2002) reported more or less similar value of TVFA concentration

as 8.76, 13.33, 14.06, 13.01 and 13.37 mg/100 ml SRL on 0, 7, 14, 21 and 28th day of


84

experiment for fed pelleted complete feed nutritionally containing 60% pigeon pea

(Cajanus cajan) straw and 40% concentrate mixture.

In contrast to present findings, Thirumalesh et al. (2003) reported non-

significant (P>0.05) TVFA concentrations in the rumen fluid of sheep for different

periods of collection. The sheep were fed experimental diets T1 (control) containing

40% ground bajra straw and 60% concentrate mixture separately, T2 complete diet

(pellet) and T3 complete diet (mash).

4.4.3: Total-Nitrogen (Total-N):

The average changes in total-N contents of cattle at different hours after

feeding are summarized in Table 4.12 along with ANOVA and the same data are

depicted in Figure 4.8.

Table 4.11: Average total nitrogen concentration (mg/dL) in strained rumen

liquor of cattle under feeding experiment.

Hours of sampling


T1 T2

0 46.43 50.38 48.40 ± 1.97

2 95.31 104.02 99.67 ± 4.36

4 76.27 81.25 78.76 ± 2.49

6 47.95 44.08 46.01 ± 1.93

Av. ± SE 66.49 ± 11.80 69.93 ± 13.97 68.21 ± 4.58

ANOVA

SV Df SS MSS Cal. F

Treatment (T) 1 94.910 94.910 14.140**

Periods (P) 3 15886.448 5295.483 788.953**

T × P 3 167.724 55.908 8.330**

Error 24 161.089 6.712

Total 31 16310.170


The data given in Table 4.12 indicated that average total-N concentration in

SRL of cattle was 66.49 and 69.97 under T1 and T2, respectively. The value of total-


85

N concentration under T2 was significantly (P<0.01) higher than that of T1. The data

for periodical changes in total-N concentrations (Figure 4.6) showed that peak

reached at 2 hrs of post feeding in both the treatments. The differences for hourly

changes in total-N concentration and interaction between treatment and period was

also highly significant (P<0.01). In both treatments there was a periodical fluctuation

in the concentration of total-N.

Rekhate et al. (2005) reported total-N concentration of SRL of sheep fed diet

comprising of arhar straw (T1) and gram straw (T2) for total nitrogen was 88.10 (T1)

and 92.16 (T2) mg/100 ml SRL which showed significant variation between

treatments. Similarly, in present study the values of total-N are higher in gram straw

supplemented group. Rekhate et al. (2004) also reported higher total-N concentration

of SRL in fed ration comprised of complete feed pellet based either on arhar straw

(ASCF), gram straw (GSCF) or exclusive arhar straw pellets supplemented with

concentrate pellets (AS-CONC). The values of total-N concentration were 82.8, 92.8

and 88.1 mg/dl under (ASCF), (GSCF) and (AS-CONC) supplemented groups,

respectively.

In contrast to present findings Thirumalesh et al. (2003) reported that total-N

concentration of SRL was decreased at 2 and 4 hrs of post feeding and the values for

0, 2, 4 and 6 hrs were 107.33, 93.55, 101.78 and 112.22 mg/100 ml, respectively.

4.4.4: Ammonia-Nitrogen (NH3-N):

The average hourly changes in ammonia-N (NH3-N) concentrations taking

place in rumen of cattle under T1 and T2 treatments are given in Table 4.13 along

with statistical analysis and the same are also depicted in Figure 4.8.


86

Table 4.12: Average ammonia nitrogen concentration (mg/dL) in strained rumen


Hours of sampling


T1 T2

0 8.34 9.04 8.69 ± 0.35

2 16.21 18.35 17.28 ± 1.07

4 14.13 16.44 15.29 ± 1.15

6 8.06 9.28 8.67 ± 0.61

Av. ± SE 11.68 ± 2.05 13.28 ± 2.41 12.48 ± 0.65

ANOVA

SV Df SS MSS Cal. F

Treatment (T) 1 20.304 20.304 63.442**

Periods (P) 3 478.951 159.650 498.834**

T × P 3 3.491 1.164 3.636*

Error 24 7.681 0.320

Total 31 510.427

NS = Non significant, **P<0.01, P< 0.05

The average SRL ammonia-N concentrations of cattle were 11.68 and 13.28

mg/dl under T1 and T2, respectively. These values for ammonia-N concentrations

were higher under T2 compared to T1. The differences between treatments for

ammonia-N concentrations were highly significant (P<0.01). The peak concentration

of ammonia-N in SRL reached at 2hrs of post feeding under both treatments T1 and

T2. Hourly changes in ammonia-N concentrations were also highly significant

(P<0.01) where interaction between treatment and period was significant (P<0.05).

The average values for ammonia-N observed under both treatments were within the

normal range.

Rekhate et al. (2004) reported ammonia-N concentrations value in the group

fed complete feed pellet based either on arhar straw (ASCF), gram straw (GSCF) or

exclusive arhar straw pellets supplemented with concentrate pellets (AS-CONC). The

values were 20.5, 20.2 and 19.5 mg/dl under ASCF, GSCF and AS-CONC groups,


87

respectively. As compared to our present study, the values of ammonia-N

concentrations in this study were higher in gram straw based complete pellets diet

(GSFC).

Rekhate et al. (2007) also demonstrated higher ammonia-N concentrations

value in the SRL of goats fed diet ad-libitum sole arhar straw pellets supplemented

with concentrate pellets @ 300 g/head /day (T1) or pelleted complete diet containing

60% arhar straw (T2). The value of ammonia-N concentrations was 19.53 and 20.52

mg/100 ml under T1 and T2.

4.4.5: Non protein Nitrogen (NPN):

The average concentrations of NPN in SRL of cattle fed respective TM₹ are

given in Table 4.14 along with statistical analysis and the same data are depicted in

Figure 4.8.

Table 4.13: Average non-protein nitrogen concentration (mg/dl) in strained

rumen liquor of cattle under feeding experiment.

Hours of sampling


T1 T2

0 16.11 18.30 17.21 ± 1.10

2 35.14 44.10 39.64 ± 4.50

4 30.11 30.60 30.37 ± 0.26

6 13.32 17.10 15.20 ± 1.88

Av. ± SE 23.67 ± 4.59 27.54 ± 5.48 25.60 ± 2.42

ANOVA

SV df SS MSS Cal. F

Treatment (T) 1 119.854 119.854 67.892**

Periods (P) 3 3187.806 1062.602 601.915**

T × P 3 80.561 26.854 15.211**

Error 24 42.369 1.765

Total 31 3430.590

NS = Non significant, **P<0.01 *P<0.05


88

The average concentration of NPN in SRL was 23.67 and 27.38 mg/dl under

T1 and T2, respectively. The concentration of NPN in treatment group was

significantly higher (P<0.01) in T2 than T1. The average periodical changes of NPN

concentration in SRL of cattle under two treatments as depicted in Figure 4.8 were

found to be significantly different (P<0.01). The peak concentration of NPN in SRL

was observed at 2 hrs of post feeding under T1 and T2, respectively.

Rekhate et al. (2004) reported higher TCA-Nitrogen content in the groups fed

complete feed pellet based either on arhar straw (ASCF), gram straw (GSCF) or

exclusive arhar straw pellets supplemented with concentrate pellets (AS-CONC). The

values observed under ASCF, GSCF and AS-CONC groups were 31.6, 41.8 and 43.5

mg/dl, respectively. The values of TCA-N concentration under gram straw based

complete feed were higher than the value observed in present study.

Similarly Rekhate et al. (2005) observed TCA-N concentrations for the group

fed arhar straw pellet and daily allowance of 300g concentrate pellet, whereas goat

under T2 were offered complete feed pellets comprised of gram straw 60% and

concentrate 40%. The values of TCA-N concentrations under T1 and T2 were 43.49

and 41.80 mg/dl which is also higher than the values observed in present study.

Rekhate et al. (2007) demonstrated higher TCA-N concentrations value in the

SRL of goats fed diet ad-libitum sole arhar straw pellets supplemented with

concentrate pellets @ 300 g/head /day (T1) or pelleted complete diet containing 60%

arhar straw (T2). The values of TCA-N concentrations were 43.49 and 31.60 under T1

and T2, respectively

Thirumalesh et al. (2003) reported that TCA-N concentration of SRL was

decreased at 2 and 4 hrs of post feeding and the values for 0, 2, 4 and 6 hrs were

18.00, 16.22, 17.70 and 19.19 mg/100 ml, respectively.


89

4.4.6: Protein Nitrogen:

The average periodical changes in protein nitrogen concentration in SRL of

cattle under two treatments are given in Table 4.15 along with statistical analysis. The

same data are also graphically presented in Figure 4.8.

Table 4.14: Average protein nitrogen concentration (mg/dl) in strained rumen


Hours of sampling


T1 T2

0 30.32 32.19 31.72 ± 0.88

2 60.17 59.90 60.02 ± 0.14

4 46.17 45.75 48.39 ± 2.23

6 34.63 27.00 30.82 ± 3.82

Av. ± SE 42.82 ±5.79 42.61 ± 6.69 42.61 ±1.45

ANOVA

SV df SS MSS Cal. F

Treatment (T) 1 1.454 4.751 1.289 NS

Periods (P) 3 1323.585 441.195 119.680 **

T × P 3 107.859 35.953 9.753 **

Error 24 88.475 3.686

Total 31 1524.670


The average protein nitrogen concentrations in SRL of cattle under T2 were

42.61 mg/dl was more or less similar as compared to T1 (42.82), the treatment

differences were non-significant. The periodical difference was found to be highly

significant (P<0.01). Similarly the differences for treatments and periods interaction

were also highly significant. The peak of protein-N reached at 2 hrs of post feeding

under T1 and T2 and decreased sharply at 6 hr of post feeding.


90

4.4.7: Soluble Nitrogen:

The average periodical changes in soluble nitrogen concentration in SRL of

cattle under two treatments are given in Table 4.16 along with statistical analysis. The

same data are also graphically presented in Figure 4.8.

Table 4.15: Average soluble nitrogen concentration (mg/dl) in strained rumen

liquor of cattle under feeding experiment

Hours of sampling

Treatments

Av. ± SE T1 T2

0 29.39 36.4 32.90 ± 3.51

2 50.68 48.4 49.53 ± 1.15

4 41.19 40.0 40.57 ± 0.61

6 35.23 34.8 35.02 ± 0.21

Av. ± SE 39.12 ± 3.94 39.89 ± .2.62 39.50 ± 1.45

ANOVA

SV Df SS MSS Cal. F

Treatment (T) 1 46.128 46.128 5.720*

Periods (P) 3 1758.074 586.025 72.668**

T × P 3 38.161 12.720 1.577NS

Error 24 193.547 8.064

Total 31 2035.911

NS = Non significant, P<0.05, *P<0.01 **

The average soluble nitrogen concentrations in SRL of cattle under T1 and T2

were 39.12 and 39.89 mg/dl respectively. But the value under T2 were slightly higher

compared to T1, and the treatment differences were significant (P<0.05). The

periodical difference were highly significant (P<0.01). However, the differences for

treatments and periods interaction were non-significant. The peak of soluble-N

reached at 2 hrs of post feeding under T1 and T2 and decreased sharply at 6 hr of post

feeding.

Rekhate et al. (2008) reported the value of soluble nitrogen concentration in

goat for the groups fed complete mash feed (T1), gram straw pellets (T2), arhar straw


91

pellets (T3) as 44.5, 42.80 and 39.95 mg/dl, respectively. There values are higher as

compared to the values (39.12 and 39.89 mg/dl) observed under present study.

Similarly Rekhate et al. (2007) also found higher values of soluble nitrogen in the

SRL of goats fed diet ad-libitum sole arhar straw pellets supplemented with

concentrate pellets @ 300 g/head /day (44.53 mg/ml) or pelleted complete diet

containing 60% arhar straw (51.13 mg/dl).

4.5. Digestibility and Nutrient intake:

4.5.1 Digestibility of proximate nutrients

Digestion trial was conducted on all 12 cattle once during the experimental

period following conventional method. The collection period was of 7 days. The

digestibility coefficients for various proximate nutrients were calculated for whole

ration.

4.5. 1.1. Dry matter digestibility:

The average digestibility of dry matter for individual cattle fed respective

TMR is presented in Table 4.16 and the same data are also depicted in Figure 4.10

Table 4.16: Average digestibility (%) of dry matter for cattle under feeding

experiment


T1 T2

1 50.01 53.77

2 53.50 56.74

3 56.92 60.05

4 57.85 61.86

5 55.61 59.79

6 57.38 62.92

Av. ± SE 55.21 ± 1.41 59.19 ± 1.18

't' value 11.184 (P<0.05)

Figure 4.8: Average periodical changes in SRL nitrogen fractions of cattle under feeding

experiment

6.00

11.00

16.00

21.00

0 hr 2 hr 4 hr 6 hr

NH

3-N

(m

g/d

l)

T1

T2

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

0 hr 2 hr 4 hr 6 hr

Pro

tein

- N

(m

g/d

l)

T1

T2

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

0 hr 2 hr 4 hr 6 hr

NP

N (

mg/d

l)

T1

T2

0.00

50.00

100.00

150.00

0 hr 2 hr 4 hr 6 hr

To

tal N

(m

g/d

l)

T1

T2


92

The values for dry matter digestibility were 55.21 and 59.19 per cent in

treatment T1 and T2, respectively. The DM digestibility was significantly increase in

treatment group as compare to control (P<0.05).

Similar trend of DM digestibility of gram chuni were also observed by Jain et al.

(1980). They compared the digestibility of gram chuni and arhar chuni. Dry matter

digestibility was significantly higher in gram chuni (59.3%) group than arhar chuni

(57.2%) group.

Kishore et al. (2013) reported more or less similar value of DM digestibility in

legume straw fed group They compare three feeds for DM digestibility comprised of

Maize stover (T1), red gram straw (T2) and black gram straw (T3) and concentrate in

60:40 ratio and compared with conventional ration (C) comprising of 5.0 kg hybrid

napier grass, 4.0 kg paddy straw and 1.5 kg concentrate mixture using buffalo bulls.

The digestibility coefficient of DM under control, T1, T2 and T3 were 52.86, 56.01,

53.99 & 54.20%, respectively. Digestibility of DM was higher (P<0.05) in legume

based ration as compared to conventional ration.

Similar findings were also observed by Venkateswarlu et al. (2013). They also

reported near about value (55.50 ± 1.19) for DM digestibility under the group fed red

gram straw. They compared the four diet for DM digestibility using Murrah buffalo

bulls. Diet comprised of jowar stover (CR-1), maize stover (CR2), red gram straw

(CR3) and black gram straw (CR4) as roughage component (Roughage concentrate

ratio 60:40). The value for digestibility coefficients of DM under CR-1, CR2, CR3

and CR4 were 52.98, 58.37, 55.50 and 48.41 %.

Similarly higher value of DM digestibility of gram straw (60.48%) were also

observed by Rekhate et al. (2008) when they studied the effect of supplementation of

three different diets comprised of CMF complete mash fed (T1), gram straw pelletes


93

(T2) and ASP arhar stalk pellets (T3) having 12% CP and 60.0% TDN for 120 days

on 18 local goats. The values for digestibility (%) of dry matter in T1, T2 and T3

were 54.29, 60.48 and 56.56 %.

Nagalakshmi et al. (2014) reported DM digestibility of red gram stalks

(pigeon pea) in Murrah buffaloes. They compared red gram stalks (RGS) at 30, 40

and 50 % level with a complete diet containing 50% sorghum stover as sole

conventional roughage source (control diet). The digestibility’s of DM under control,

30%, 40% and 50% RGS was 54.51, 50.70, 47.37 and 41.43%, respectively. While in

present study we replace 80% wheat straw with gram straw in treatment group and

found that DM digestibility was found higher compare to this findings.

4.5. 1.2. Organic matter digestibility:

The average digestibility of organic matter for individual cattle fed respective

TMR is presented in Table 4.17 and the same data are also presented in Figure 4.10.

Table 4.17: Average digestibility (%) of organic matter for cattle under feeding

experiment.


T1 T2

1 56.62 58.13

2 55.54 60.72

3 62.83 63.95

4 61.86 65.45

5 60.29 64.22

6 60.94 66.99

Av. ± SE 59.68± 1.20 63.24± 1.33

't' value 4.470 (P<0.05)

The organic matter digestibility was 59.68 and 63.24 % under T1 and T2,

respectively. The treatment difference for the same were statistically significant

(P<0.05).


94

Jain et al. (1980) reported more or less similar value (60.70%) of OM

digestibility in group fed gram chuni as compared to value observed (63.24 %) under

present study. When they compare digestibility of gram chuni and arhar chuni. The

values for organic matter digestibility in gram chuni (60.7%) group higher than arhar

chuni (59.60%) group. Similarly higher value of OM digestibility of gram straw were

also observed by Rekhate et al. (2005) when they studied the effect of

supplementation of two different diets comprised of arhar straw (T1) & gram straw

(T2) on goats. The values for digestibility (%) of organic matter in T1 & T2 were

56.17 and 58.42 %.

Rekhate et al. (2008) also observed higher value (58.42 %) in group fed gram straw

based diets as compare to arhar straw (51.31%) based diet on non-descript local

goats.

Kishore et al. (2013) reported OM digestibility of crop residue based complete

ration and conventional feed. They compare three feed for OM digestibility comprised

of Maize stover (T1), red gram straw (T2) and black gram straw (T3) and concentrate

in 60:40 ratio and compared with conventional ration (C) comprising of 5.0 kg hybrid

napier grass, 4.0 kg paddy straw and 1.5 kg concentrate mixture using buffalo bulls.

The digestibility coefficient of OM under control, T1, T2 and T3 were 57.32, 58.77,

58.19 & 57.49%, respectively. Digestibility of OM was higher (P<0.05) in legume

based ration compared to conventional ration.

Nagalakshmi et al. (2014) also reported OM digestibility in Murrah buffaloes

when they compared red gram stalks (RGS) at 30, 40 and 50 % level with a complete

diet containing 50% sorghum stover as sole conventional roughage source (control

diet). The digestibilities of OM under control, 30%, 40% and 50% RGS was 57.05,

52.90, 45.47 and 46.92%, respectively which is lower than the present study.


95

4.5. 1.3. Crude protein digestibility:

The average digestibility of crude protein for individual cattle fed respective


Table 4.18: Average digestibility (%) of crude protein for cattle under feeding

experiment


T1 T2

1 59.98 59.86

2 58.49 59.72

3 66.35 70.04

4 60.58 68.85

5 62.07 64.48

6 69.12 65.49

Av. ± SE 62.77 ± 1.68 64.74± 1.78

't' value 1.218 NS

The crude protein digestibility was 62.77 and 64.74 % in treatment T1 and T2,

respectively. The differences between the treatments were non-significant (P<0.01).

Venkateswarlu et al. (2013) reported more or less similar value of CP digestibility

under the group fed complete ration containing different crop residues using four

graded murrah buffalo bulls on nutrient utilization. They compared the four diet for

CP digestibility using Murrah buffalo bulls. Diet comprised of jowar stover (CR-1),

maize stover (CR2), red gram straw (CR3) and black gram straw (CR4) as roughage

component (Roughage concentrate ratio 60:40). The value for digestibility

coefficients of CP under CR-1, CR2, CR3 and CR4 were 67.80, 70.62, 66.39 and

64.12 %, respectively. Similar value was also observed by Rekhate et al. (2007) for

CP digestibility in goat under the group fed diet containing 60% legume (arhar)

straw. The goat were fed ad-libitum sole arhar pellet supplemented with concentrate

pellets @ 300g/head/day (T1) or pelleted complete diet containing 60% arhar straw

0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

60.00

70.00

DM OM CP EE CF NFE

55.21

59.68 62.77

68.36

56.88 59.81 59.19

63.24 64.74

68.66

55.96

64.94

Dig

est

ibil

ity %

Nutrients

Figure 4.9: Average nutrient digestibility (%) by cattle


T1 T2


96

(T2). Digestibility of Crude protein% was (59.57 ± 2.57 and 64.00 ± 1.90) under the

group T1 and T2, respectively.

In contrast to present study Jain et al. (1980) reported lower value (59.60%)

crude protien digestibility in group fed gram chuni as compared to value observed

(64.47 %) under present study. When they compare crude protein digestibility of gram

chuni and arhar chuni. The values for crude protien digestibility in gram chuni

(59.60%) group higher than arhar chuni (57.50%) group. Patil et al. (2013) also

obsereved higher crude protein digestibility in gram straw based diet (78.10%) as

compare to arhar straw baed diet on local goats which was higher than than the

present study.

Kishore et al. (2013) also reported lower value (61.16 %) of CP digestibility in

group fed red gram straw as compared to value observed under present study. They

compare three feed for CP digestibility comprised of Maize stover (T1), red gram

straw (T2) and black gram straw (T3) and concentrate in 60:40 ratio and compared

with conventional ration (C) comprising of 5.0 kg hybrid napier grass, 4.0 kg paddy

straw and 1.5 kg concentrate mixture using buffalo bulls. The digestibility coefficient

of CP under control, T1, T2 and T3 were 56.26, 66.57, 61.16 and 63.75%,

respectively. Nagalakshmi et al. (2014) also reported lower value of CP digestibility

of red gram stalks in Murrah buffaloes when they compared red gram stalks (RGS) at

30, 40 and 50 % level with a complete diet containing 50% sorghum stover as sole

conventional roughage source (control diet). The CP digestibility for control, 30%,

40% and 50% RGS was 58.50, 45.84, 37.58 and 37.58%, respectively.


97

4.5. 1.4. Ether extract digestibility:

The average digestibility of ether extract for individual cattle fed respective


Table 4.19: Average digestibility (%) of ether extract for cattle under feeding

experiment


T1 T2

1 70.06 59.03

2 73.01 68.33

3 60.39 73.27

4 75.11 73.50

5 71.73 67.31

6 59.87 70.55

Av. ± SE 68.36 ± 2.69 68.66 ± 2.18

't' value 0.079 NS

The ether extract digestibility was almost similar in both the treatments. The

values were 68.36 and 68.66 % in treatment T1 and T2, respectively. The differences

between the treatments were non-significant (P>0.05).

In contrast to present study Jain et al. (1980) also reported lower value

(53.5%) of EE digestibility in group fed gram chuni as compared to value observed

under present study. When they compared digestibility of gram chuni and arhar

chuni. The values for ether extract digestibility in gram chuni (53.5%) group higher

than arhar chuni (50.6%) group.

Venkateswarlu et al. (2013) reported lower value for EE digestibility under the

group fed legume straw. They compared the four diet for digestibility using Murrah

buffalo bulls. Diet comprised of jowar stover (CR-1), maize stover (CR2), red gram

straw (CR3) and black gram straw (CR4) as roughage component (Roughage

concentrate ratio 60:40). The value for digestibility coefficients of EE under CR-1,

CR2, CR3 and CR4 were 55.22, 56.62, 51.24 and 46.96 %, respectively. Similarly


98

Kishore et al. (2013) reported lower value of EE digestibility in group fed legume

(red gram and black gram) straw as compared to value observed under present study.

They compare three feed comprised of Maize stover (T1), red gram straw (T2) and

black gram straw (T3) and concentrate in 60:40 ratio and compared with conventional

ration (C) comprising of 5.0 kg hybrid napier grass, 4.0 kg paddy straw and 1.5 kg

concentrate mixture using buffalo bulls. The digestibility coefficient of EE under

control, T1, T2 and T3 were 55.03, 59.36, 57.37 & 58.32%, respectively.

4.5. 1.5. Crude fibre digestibility:

The average digestibility of crude fibre for individual cattle fed respective


Table 4.20: Average digestibility (%) of crude fibre for cattle under feeding

experiment


T1 T2

1 52.10 48.53

2 56.77 52.87

3 59.46 55.66

4 57.13 57.73

5 57.48 59.92

6 58.32 61.07

Av. ± SE 56.88± 1.03 55.96 ± 1.91

't' value 0.699 NS

The crude fibre digestibility was almost similar in both the treatments. The

values were 56.88 and 56.96 % in treatment T1 and T2, respectively. The differences

between the treatments were non-significant (P>0.05).

Jain et al. (1980) reported more or less similar value (57.50%) of CF

digestibility in group fed gram chuni as compared to value observed (55.96 %) under

present study. When they compare digestibility of gram chuni and arhar chuni. The


99

values for crude fibre digestibility in gram chuni (57.5%) group higher than arhar

chuni (54.70%) group.

In contrast to present study Venkateswarlu et al. (2013) reported lower value

(48.48%) for CF digestibility under the group fed red gram straw as compared to

value observed under present study. They compared the four diets for digestibility

using Murrah buffalo bulls. Diet comprised of jowar stover (CR-1), maize stover

(CR2), red gram straw (CR3) and black gram straw (CR4) as roughage component

(Roughage concentrate ratio 60:40). The value for digestibility coefficients of CF

under CR-1, CR2, CR3 and CR4 were 44.85, 54.94, 48.48 and 43.99 %, respectively.

4.5. 1.6. NFE digestibility:

The average digestibility of nitrogen free extract for individual cattle fed

respective TMR is presented in Table 4.21 and the same data are also presented in

Figure 4.10.

Table 4.21: Average digestibility (%) of nitrogen free extract for cattle under

feeding experiment


T1 T2

1 57.39 59.49

2 52.41 61.58

3 63.83 66.55

4 64.60 66.87

5 60.69 61.67

6 59.93 66.12

Av. ± SE 59.81 ± 1.83 63.71 ± 1.30

't' value 3.061 (P<0.05)

The average data for the digestibility of NFE were 59.81 and 63.71 % under

treatment T1 and T2, respectively and the values were found statistically significant

among the treatment.


100

Rekhate et al. (2005) reported lower value (39.70%) of digestibility of NFE in

goat fed gram straw. They offered two different diets to comprise of arhar straw (T1)

& gram straw (T2). The goat under T1 were fed arhar straw pellet and daily

allowance of 300g concentrate pellet whereas goat under T2 were offered complete

feed pellets composed of gram straw 60% & concentrate 40%. The values for

digestibility of NFE were 36.16 and 39.70% under T1 and T2, respectively.

4.5. 1.7. NDF digestibility:

The average digestibility of neutral detergent fibre for individual cattle fed

respective TMR is presented in Table 4.22

Table 4.22: Average digestibility (%) of neutral detergent fibre for cattle under

feeding experiment


T1 T2

1 49.41 51.80

2 60.69 54.59

3 65.75 62.38

4 44.65 61.51

5 61.92 62.44

6 62.46 60.52

Av. ± SE 57.48 ± 3.43 58.87 ± 1.85

't' value 0.420 NS

The average data for the digestibility of NDF were 57.48 and 58.87 % under

treatment T1 and T2, respectively and the differences for the same were found to be

statistically non-significant.

Rekhate et al. (2005) reported that digestibility of NDF for the group fed gram

straw was 59.90 % which is similar to value 58.87 % observed in present study. They

offered two different diets to comprise of arhar straw (T1) & gram straw (T2). The

goat under T1 were fed arhar straw pellet and daily allowance of 300g concentrate

pellet whereas goat under T2 were offered complete feed pellets composed of gram


101

straw 60% & concentrate 40%. The values for digestibility of NDF were 57.89 and

59.90 % under T1 and T2, respectively.

In contrast to present study Bhadane et al. (2004) reported higher value of

NDF digestibility in group fed arhar (pigeon pea) straw. Goats under both the


CP, 67.44% TDN) containing arhar (pigeon pea) straw as a sole roughage. The

digestibility of NDF was 61.1 and 65.5% under T1 and T2, respectively.

4.5. 1.8. ADF digestibility:

The average digestibility of ADF for individual animal fed respective TMR is

presented in Table 4.23

Table 4.23: Average digestibility (%) of acid detergent fibre for cattle under

feeding experiment


T1 T2

1 36.70 37.39

2 39.08 42.28

3 46.09 57.52

4 57.69 50.62

5 48.56 50.81

6 42.55 49.90

Av. ± SE 45.11 ± 3.08 48.09 ± 2.01

't' value 1.161 NS

The average data for the ADF digestibility were 45.11 and 48.09 % under T1

and T2, respectively and did not differ significantly.

Bhadaneet al. (2004) reported more or less similar value (45.20%) of ADF

digestibility in group fed legume (pigeon pea) straw as compared to value observed

(48.09 %) under present study. Goats under both the treatments were fed pelleted

complete feed T1 (12% CP, 65.81% TDN) and T2 (14% CP, 67.44% TDN)


102

containing arhar (pigeon pea) straw as a sole roughage. The digestibility of ADF was

45.2 and 49.7% under T1 and T2, respectively.

In contrast to present study Rekhate et al. (2005) reported more digestibility of

ADF for the group fed arhar straw that was 58.91 % in comparison to value (48.09%)

observed in present study.

4.6. Efficiency of Feed utilization:

4.6.1 Dry matter intake (kg) per kg weight gain

Minimum requirement of nutrient per kg gain along with optimum growth rate

in animals is a desirable feature of livestock production. For the calculation of feed

intake per kg body weight gain, the total dry matter intake was calculated. It was

divided by total weight gain and DM intake per kg gain was worked out.

Table 4.24: Dry matter intake kg per kg weight gain for cattle under feeding

experiment

Animal No. DM intake kg/kg gain

T1 T2

1 8.91 5.53

2 9.04 6.41

3 7.77 7.05

4 8.39 9.71

5 9.04 7.56

6 8.98 7.42

Av. ± SE 8.69 ± 0.21 7.28 ± 0.57

't' value 2.113 NS

The data given in Table 4.24 revealed that cattle required 8.69 and 7.28 kg dry

matter per kg weight gain under treatments T1 and T2, respectively and the treatment

difference were statistically non-significant (P<0.05).

Rekhate et al. (2007) also reported similar result of feed conversion efficiency

under the group fed ad-libitum sole red gram straw pellets supplemented with

concentrate pellet @ 300g/h/d (T1) or pelleted complete diet containing 60% red


103

gram straw (T2) was 15.02 ± 2.67 and 14.52 ± 1.62 kg/kg gain for T1 & T2,

respectively. Feed conversion efficiency was better in legume supplemented group

may be attributed to pelleted complete feed.

Reddy et al. (2012) observed less DM intake in legume based fed diet. The

DMI (kg/kg gain) were 8.39, 9.41, 8.64 & 9.24 for male kids fed diet comprised of

mash with 35% Red gram straw T1, mash with 50% RGS T2, Pellets with 35% RGS

T3 and pellets with 50% RGS T4. Kumar et al. (1989) also observed similar trend in

average DM intake (kg/kg gain), which were 7.36 ± 0.84, 7.44 ± 0.29, 7.54 ± 0.87 &

7.62 ± 0.82 for lambs fed cowpea hay at 70 (CR-1), 60 (CR-2), 50 (CR-3) & 40%

(CR-4) as sole source of roughage.

Sihag et al. (2008) evaluated conventional ration (C) was replaced with gram

straw 60, mustard cake 12, deoiled rice bran 10 and barley 5% (GBP) or soyaben

straw 60, mustard cake 8, deoiled rice bran 9 and barley 10% (SBP) and black gram

straw 60, mustard cake 5, deoiled rice bran 9 and barley 13% (BGBP) based pellets

along with 10% molasses, 2% mineral mixture and 1% salt. All the three rations were

iso-nitrogenous having roughage to concentrate ratio 60:40 and fed ad lib. The feed

intake/unit body weight gain was lowest (5.75) in diet C followed by SBCP (7.53),

BGBP (7.98) & GBP (8.06). These results indicated that black gram straw based

pelleted diet was the best among the three straw based pelleted diets.

4.6.2 CP, DCP and TDN intake (kg) per kg weight gain

The crude protein (kg) per kg gain was calculated from the average weekly

feed intake and average crude protein contents of TMR fed to the cattle. Likewise, the

DCP and TDN intake (kg) per kg weight gain was worked out. These data are

presented in Table 4.25 along with statistical analysis.

0.00

500.00

1000.00

1500.00

2000.00

2500.00

C.P DCP TDN

476.66

299.18

2229

510.24

330.34

2344

Inta

ke

(g)

Nutrients

Figure 4.10. Average nutrient intake (g) by cattle under two

treatments

T1

T2


104

Table 4.25: Crude protein, digestible crude protein and total digestible nutrients

intake kg per kg weight gain for cattle under feeding experiment for cattle under

experiment.

Animal

No.

CPI kg/kg gain DCPI kg/kg gain TDNI kg/kg gain

T1 T2 T1 T2 T1 T2

1 1.10 0.73 0.69 0.48 5.12 3.37

2 1.12 0.85 0.70 0.55 5.23 3.89

3 0.93 0.90 0.58 0.58 4.35 4.15

4 1.03 1.23 0.64 0.80 4.80 5.65

5 1.09 0.95 0.68 0.61 5.10 4.36

6 1.09 0.95 0.68 0.61 5.09 4.36

Av. ±

SE 1.06 ± 0.03

0.94 ±

0.07

0.66 ±

0.02

0.61 ±

0.01

4.95 ±

0.13

4.30 ±

0.31

't' value 1.546 NS 1.079 NS 1.751 NS

The data presented in Table 4.25 revealed that 1.06 and 0.94 kg crude protein

was required per kg gain in weight by cattle under treatment T1 and T2, respectively.

The cattle supplemented with TMR incorporated with gram straw as a roughage

source require 11.32% less CP per kg gain in weight in comparison to cattle of control

diet (T1). The treatment difference were non- significant (P>0.05). The DCP (kg)

required per kg weight gain was 0.66 and 0.61 under T1 and T2, respectively. The

cattle under T2 group required 7.57% less DCP per kg gain in weight in comparison

to cattle under T1 group and the treatment differences were non-significant (P>0.05).

However, the TDN (kg) required per kg weight gain was 4.95 and 4.30 under T1 and

T2, respectively. Similarly the cattle under T2 group required 13.13% less TDN per kg

gain in weight in comparison to calves under T1 group and the treatment differences

were also significant (P<0.05).

` Durgaprasad et al. (1986) reported values for gain per kg protein intake as

0.71, 0.84, 0.93 and 1.14 kg in lambs (11.16 kg body weight) fed 80, 60, 40 and 205

level of groundnut haulm in complete ration, respectively. The DCP and TDN intake

(kg/kg gain) was 1.11 and 5.09; 1.14 and 5.83; and 1.35 and 7.13 in lambs fed TMR-I,

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

T1 T2

48.98

42.67

Rs/

d/a

nim

al

Groups

Figure 11: Feeding cost (₹/d/animal) of cattle under

feeding experiment


105

TMR-II and TMR-III, respectively and the treatment did not differ from each other as

reported by Wadhwani et al.(2010).

The present findings suggested that cattle required less DM, CP, DCP and

TDN per unit gain in weight as the cattle utilized nutrient efficiently of TMR

incorporated with gram straw as a roughage source in replacement of wheat straw.

4.7. Cost of feeding:

In present study, the cost of feeding in term of ₹/day/animal and ₹/kg gain was

calculated from the records of feeds and fodder used for preparation of TMR and

amount of consumption of different TMR along with considering actual price of feed

and fodder and total gain in body weight during experimental period.

4.7.1 Cost of feed (₹/day/animal)

The data of average cost of feeding ₹/day/animal are given in Table 4.26 and

the same data are also depicted in Figure 4.11

Table 4.26: Feeding cost (₹/d/animal and ₹/kg gain) of cattle fed total mixed

ration under feeding experiment

Animal No. ₹/d/cattle ₹/kg gain

T1 T2 T1 T2

1 41.134 43.64 108.91 71.03

2 44.917 46.37 113.31 81.14

3 49.697 50.56 97.40 88.47

4 50.607 57.84 105.27 122.68

5 51.505 51.68 113.74 95.19

6 54.941 49.66 113.00 91.48

Av. ± SE 48.98 ± 2.13 49.95 ± 1.99 108.27 ± 2.61 91.67 ± 7.12

't' value 0.604 NS 0.089 NS

The data given in Table 4.26 revealed that average daily feed cost was 48.98

and 49.95, respectively, under T1 and T2 and the treatment difference were non-

significant (P>0.05). The daily cost of feeding was more or less similar for cattle fed

TMR incorporated with gram straw as roughage source as compared to cattle fed


106

control (T1) TMR. The average cost of feed ₹ per kg gain was 108.27 and 91.61 under

treatment T1 and T2, respectively and similarly the treatment difference were also

non-significant (P>0.05). The cost of feed kg/kg gain was 15.33 % less for cattle fed

T2 TMR than the cattle fed control diet.

Durgaprasad et al. (1986) observed the feed cost (₹/kg gain) as 9.44, 9.18,

9.27 and 8.10 (P>0.05) for the lambs fed complete rations containing 80, 60, 40 and

20% level of groundnut haulm. It was concluded that a complete ration formulated

with groundnut haulm and a conventional concentrate mixture in the ratio of 40:60

was superior and economical to other complete ration. Yadav and Sihag (2002)

reported reduction in daily feeding cost (₹ 4.80 in T1 vs. 4.46, 4.46, 4.37, 4.35 and

4.52 in T2, T3, T4, T5 and T6, respectively) and reduction in cost/kg gain (₹ 43.96 in

T1 vs. 41.56, 42.95, 42.45, 49.04 and 43.81 in T2, T3, T4 and T6, respectively) except

in T5 (49.04) in experimental groups as compared to control. The treatment difference

were non-significant.

No significant difference for the cost of feed was observed by Yadav and

Desmukh (2001) in group CR-2 containing spent straw based complete feed than

complete feed containing wheat straw (CR-1) with the feed cost/animal/day (₹) was

2.44 and 2.68, respectively in CR-1 and CR-2 and the feed cost/kg (₹) was 2.57 in

both CR-1 and CR-2 groups.

The findings of present study suggested that cattle fed gram straw based TMR

(T2) is economical in raising growing cattle.

Summary

and

Conclusions

107

V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The present experiment was conducted to study the comparative effect of feeding

wheat straw based TMR and gram straw based TMR on growing cattle. The experiment was

conducted at Animal Nutrition Research Department, College of Veterinary Science and

Animal Husbandry, Anand Agricultural University, Anand. The objectives of study were to

know the incorporation of optimum level of gram straw determined by in-vitro study and to

know the effect of feeding gram straw based TMR on:

o Dry matter and nutrient intake

o Body weight

o Rumen fermentation pattern

o Digestibility of nutrients

o Feed conversion efficiency

o Cost of feeding

The present experiment was conducted on twelve cattle for period of 5 weeks. The cattle

were grouped randomly into two groups of six each considering their age and body weight.

The cattle under T1 were fed TMR composed of roughage and concentrate in respective

proportion (45) compound concentrate + (55) wheat straw. In treatment group (T2) cattle

were offered TMR composed of roughage and concentrate in same proportion as mention

above but 80 percent wheat straw replaced by gram straw.

The cattle were adopted for respective feed for minimum 7 days. Individual feeding of all

cattle was carried out during the study period of 5 weeks. Quantity of TMR offered was

adjusted at weekly interval according to change in body weight and growth rate of calves.

The quantity of TMR required each day was offered equal quantity in morning and evening.

Nutrient requirement of cattle in terms of DM, DCP and TDN were met as per ICAR (1998)

feeding standard.

During the experimental period cattle were weighed at weekly interval for two

consecutive days before feeding and watering for the entire experimental period of 5 weeks.

The data for daily dry matter intake, DCP intake, TDN intake, feed conversion efficiency and

cost of feeding were calculated. Rumen liquor samples were collected from two cattle in each

treatment once at the end of experiment to know the effect of feeding gram straw on rumen

108

metabolites. The digestion trial was conducted on all the calves once during the experimental

period.

5.1. Phase-I: In vitro study: To know the optimum level of incorporation of gram straw

with various level of replacement of wheat straw in total mixed ration (TMR).

In phase-I, the TMR was prepared by mixing concentrate mixture, wheat straw and

gram straw. The concentrate to roughage ratio was kept at 45:55. The TMR without gram

straw was designated as G0 (control), gram straw was incorporated in TMR as replacement of

wheat straw @ 100, 80, 60, 40 and 20 % and were designated as G1, G2, G3, G4, and G5,

respectively, for in vitro studies..

The average values of in vitro dry matter digestibility at 24 h incubation for G0, G1, G2, G3, G4,

and G5 treatment groups were observed as 66.47, 69.36, 69.21, 66.50, 66.30 and 62.41%,


IVDMD in G0, G3, G4, and G5 treatment group as compared to G1 and G2 groups. The average

values of IVOMD at 24 h incubation for G0, G1, G2, G3, G4, and G5 treatment groups were

observed as 65.84, 69.08, 69.14, 66.52, 65.24 and 65.82%, respectively. The statistical

analysis of data revealed significant (P<0.05) decrease in IVOMD in G0, G3, G4 and G5

treatment group as compared to G1 and G2 groups.

The study revealed that optimum level of incorporation of gram straw with wheat

straw in TMR for feeding of cattle was G1 (100% gram straw) and G2 groups (80% gram

straw).

5.2. Effect on Dry matter and Nutrients intake:

Average daily dry matter intake was found to be 4.13 and 4.19 kg/cattle and on

metabolic body weight basis was 90.98 ± 1.21 and 90.91 ± 1.11 g/kg W0.75

for cattle under T1

and T2, respectively and the treatment differences non-significant (P<0.05). While the

average data for per cent dry matter intake was 2.54 ± 0.01 and 2.52 ±0.02 kg/100 kg BW in

T1 and T2, respectively and the treatment difference was also statistically non-significant

(P>0.05). The animals under T1 and T2 consumed on an average 476.66 ± 17.71 and 510.24 ±

17.49 g CP and 299.18 and 330.34 g DCP, respectively and were found significant. The data

for average daily TDN intake was 2.23 and 2.34 kg (P<0.05), which was also found

significant.

109

5.3. Effect on Body weight:

The average total gain in body weight by cattle during 5 weeks of experimental period

was 15.83 ± 0.79 and 19.33 ± 0.67 kg with average daily gain of 452.38 ± 22.64 and 552.38 ±

19.40 g, respectively in T1 and T2 groups. The treatment group show higher weight gain and

daily weight gain and the treatment differences were also significant (P<0.05).

5.4. Rumen Fermentation pattern:

The results for rumen fermentation pattern revealed that the average pH value was

lower in T1 (6.50) than T2 (6.70). There was a sharp drop in pH at 2 hrs of post feeding. The

non-significant difference was observed for average TVFA values in both the groups. The

sharp drop in SRL pH is associated with increased level of TVFA at 4hrs of post feeding. The

average values of ammonia-N were 11.68 and 13.28 mg/dl under T1 and T2, respectively and

the treatment difference were highly significant (P<0.01). The total-N concentration under T2

was highly significant (69.93 mg/dl) compare to T1 (66.49 mg/dl). However the difference

between treatments, protein-N were found non-significant (42.82 and 42.61 mg/dl). The

average concentration of NPN in SRL was significantly higher (P<0.05) in T2 (27.54 mg/dl)

than T1 (23.67mg/dl).

5.5. Effect on Digestibility of Nutrients:

Digestion trial was conducted on twelve cattle at the end of the experimental period

following conventional method to determine the digestibility of nutrients. The digestibility of

dry matter, organic matter and NFE were 55.21 and 59.19 %, 59.68 and 63.24%, 59.81 and

63.71 for T1 and T2, respectively which was slightly higher in T2 compared to T1. (P<0.05). .

However the digestibility of EE, CF, NDF and ADF were 68.36 and 68.66, 56.88 and 55.96,

57.48 and 58.87, 45.11 and 48.09, respectively statistically non-significant (P>0.05).

5.5. Effect on Feed Efficiency:

Efficiency of feed utilization was calculated as dry matter and nutrients required per

kg weight gain. The DM required per kg weight gain was 8.69 and 7.28 kg for T1 and T2,

respectively. The efficiency of feed utilization was more or less similar in T1 and T2 and the

treatment difference were statistically non-significant (P>0.05). The value for CP, DCP and

TDN intake per kg weight gain were 1.06, 0.66 and 4.95 kg in control group (T1) and 0.94,

110

0.61 and 4.30 kg in treatment group (T2), respectively. The treatment difference for CP, DCP

and TDN intake was non-significant (P>0.05).

5.6. Cost of Feeding:

Cost of feeding was worked out from the data of feed consumption and unit price of

different feeds and fodder and the cost of feed per day and per kg gain were calculated. The

cost of feed (Rs/d/animal) was 48.98 and 49.95 whereas cost of feed (Rs/kg gain) was 108.27

and 91.61, respectively in T1 and T2 group. The treatment effect was non-significant

(P>0.05). The cost of feed per day and cost of feed per kg gain was more or less similar in T1

and T2.

CONCLUSIONS:

Following conclusions are drawn:

Daily dry matter intake along with CP, DCP and TDN intake was found to be more or

less similar in both group. These observations suggested that TMR with gram straw had non-

significant effect on dry matter and nutrient intake.

o Growth rate of cattle was higher in T2 (552.38 g/d) fed TMR with gram straw as

compared to control diet (452.38 g/d) and the treatment difference was significant

(P<0.05).

o The concentrations of rumen metabolites were higher for (T2) treatment group than (T1)

group.

o Digestibility of nutrients (DM, OM, CF, EE, NFE, NDF, and ADF) were improved non-

significantly (P>0.05) whereas CP digestibility was improved significantly (P<0.05).

o The findings of present study suggested that animal fed with gram straw based TMR

required more or less similar DMI as compared to wheat straw based TMR.

o The findings of present study suggested that animal fed with gram straw based TMR

required 7.04 % less CP, 10.41% less DCP and 4.93 % less TDN per kg gain in

comparison to cattle fed TMR (T1) and the treatment difference for CP and TDN intake

were significant (P<0.05).

o The daily feed cost was more or less similar in cattle fed both TMR with gram straw and

cost per kg gain was reduced by 15.33%.

111

It is concluded from these results that cattle can be raised on gram straw based TMR

with better efficiency to that of cattle fed control TMR with regards to growth rate, nutrients

digestibility, efficiency for feed and nutrient utilization and cost of feeding per kg gain.

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