Livestock is an integral part of agriculture and plays an important role in contributing to national economy. India is the world’s largest milk producer, with 21 per cent global production. Rajasthan is ranked 2nd in India and produces 23.6 million tonnes of milk every year. Total cattle population in the India was 192.49 M (GOI, 2019). Gir is a most important milch cattle breed of India. The distribution of this breed is Gir hills and forest of Kathiawar, Junagadh, Bhavnagar, Rajkot and Amreli districts of Gujarat and also in some parts of Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Body of Gir animals is well proportioned. Cattle of this breed are most important for their tolerance to stress conditions and resistant to various tropical diseases. Gir animals are considered with low overall mortality (3.63 per cent). Livestock should be fed differently to meet body requirement based on their species, age and purpose of production. The recommendations only serve as guidelines used for choosing dietary nutrient (energy, protein, essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, minerals, vitamins) concentrations in practical diets. Nutrition plays crucial role in growth, reproduction and production of animals but the biomass resources are very limited and there is shortage of feed and fodder. There is a serious shortage of conventional feed resources. Hence, it is necessary to look for protein rich, nonconventional feed resources. Feeding is one of the most important determinants of profit in the livestock farming. These feed resources are very poor in nutrient contents which are even not able to supply the nutrients required for maintaining the animals. Urea is non-protein nitrogen compound.
Supplementation of urea increase feed intake and milk yield of the cows. The crude protein equivalent value of urea is about 287 per cent crude protein. Urea when used for treatment of straw boost the nutritional quality of straw in terms of increased nitrogen content, enhanced the palatability and digestibility. The composition of mustard cake (MC) varies with the variety, growing conditions and processing methods. The crude protein content varies from 33-40 per cent in mustard cake. Mustard cakes have D.C.P. and T.D.N. values 27 per cent and 74 per cent respectively. Guar meal is a relatively inexpensive high protein meal produced as a by-product of guar gum manufacture which is obtains after the mechanical separation of endosperm from both hulls and germs of guar seed. Guar gum recovery is around 29 per cent of total guar seed, whereas churi and korma accounts for 30 per cent and 37 per cent respectively and others 4 per cent. Guar meal have about 65 per cent T.D.N.. Being a rich source of proteins, nutrients and fibres with high digestibility, it is being used as feed after processing for animals. In dairy cattle, Guar meal is a highest protein containing animal feed in its group. Mustard cake and Guar meal is relatively very rich in energy and protein contents than other feed ingredients.
The experiment was carried out at Dairy farm, Department of Livestock Production Management, S.K.N. College of Agriculture, Jobner (Jaipur). Sixteen lactating Gir cows were selected for the experiment. They were randomly divided into four groups of four in each group on basis of nearness in their production and body weight of cows and four dietary treatments were formulated i.e. Wheat straw
Animal were stall fed individually
Feeding schedule of Gir cows
Dry fodder, green fodder and concentrate ration were offered daily in the morning and evening Feed intake data was recorded on two consecutive days at fortnightly interval weighing the refusal before next feeding. A representative sample of Mustard cake, Gaur meal, Dry fodder (Wheat straw) and concentrate palleted offered to the animals and refused left in each treatment was taken fortnight for estimating the dry matter and crude protein contents. The DM content each feed stuff was determined by keeping the samples in hot air oven at 105°C over night to a constant weight. Dried sample were bulked, ground and kept for chemical analysis. The data of dry matter content was used for calculating dry matter intake during entire experimental period. Samples of feeds were subjected to protein and other quality evaluation in the laboratory.
The data of water intake was recorded for two consecutive days at fortnightly intervals. The measured quantity of clean and fresh water was offered to individual animals during morning and evening in a graduated bucket and refusal of water, if any was also measured to know the actual voluntary water consumption.
The experiment planned with subject to analysis of variance (ANOVA) for randomized block design (RBD) and the means were tested by least significance difference. Different statistical tools such as mean, standard deviation (SD), standard error (SE) were worked out to compare the group.
The supplies of different nutrients were related to DMI in animals. Generally wide variation in DM content of the breeds in noticed which has direct influence on DMI of animals. It is therefore, necessary to know the DMI of cows through feeding different feeds on fresh basis. With this view the DMI of cow under different treatment was workout. The average daily dry matter intake (DMI) of Gir cows in different treatments is presented in
The average daily voluntary water intake (VWI) of Gir cows in different treatments is presented in
Average daily dry matter intake (Kg) of per cow under different treatment during winter season
Average voluntary water intake (liter) of Gir cows under different treatments during winter season