Comparison of In Sacco Rumen Dry Matter Degradability and Feeds intake and Digestion of Crossbred Dairy Cows (Holestian Friesian X Horro) Supplemented with Concentrate Diet (original) (raw)

A study was conducted at Bako Agricultural Research Centre to evaluate the feeding value of Pennisetum purpureum Silage (PPS) as basal diet when offered sole or in mixture with Natural Grass Hay (NGH) on voluntary feed intake, digestibility, degradability, milk yield and composition of crossbred dairy cattle. Ten dairy cows (Horro X Friesian) with similar milk yield (6.2-8.5 kg d-1), initial body weight of 307.99±8.53 kg (mean ± SEM), early stage of lactation, but differing in parities were used in a switch over 5X5 double Latin square design. There were five periods each composed of 30 days, 15 days for adaptation and the remaining 15 days for data collection. Treatments were NGH and PPS at a ratio of 100:0 (T1), 75:25 (T2), 50:50 (T3), 25:75 (T4) and 0:100% (T5), respectively. The basal diets were fed ad libitum. All animals were fed concentrate mix (49.5% maize grain + 49.5% noug seed cake + 1% salt) at a level of 0.5 kg/l of milk and additional 100 gram mineral mixtures was added for each cows daily into feed trough. Results of chemical analysis and degradability studies of experimental feeds indicated that PPS (CP=13.85%, ME=10.22 (MJKg-1DM) had better nutritive value than NGH (CP=11.72% and ME=7.98 (MJKg-1 DM). Ruminal in Sacco degradation characteristics observed for PPS were good indicative of being better basal feed than NGH. The daily DM, CP, and ME intake were highly significant (P<0.001) among the treatments with the highest intake observed when cows were fed sole PPS (T5). Apparent DM digestibility of T5 (66.1) were higher (P<0.001) than T1 (63.4), T2 (63.6), T3 (64.1) and T4 (64.9%). Crude protein and neutral detergent fiber digestibility coefficient were not affected by the different dietary treatments (P>0.05). Daily milk yield was higher (P<0.01) for T4 (6.60) and T5 (6.89) as compared to T1 (6.28 l/d). Composition of all milk constituents were not significantly (P>0.05) different among dietary treatments. Mean daily live weight loss was not significantly (P>0.05) different among treatments. Therefore, the result demonstrated that PPS had better feeding value as compared to the NGH for crossbred lactating dairy cows and can be conserved and used especially in the dry season when conventional roughages are in short supply and low in CP content.