Effect of feeding hydroponics maize fodder on digestibility of nutrients and milk production in lactating cows

Abstract

Hydroponics maize fodder of 7 days growth was fed to 6 dairy cows divided into two equal groups (BW 442 kg; avg. milk yield 6.0 kg). Animals were offered 5 kg concentrate mixture and ad lib. jowar straw along with either 15 kg fresh hydroponics maize fodder (T-HF) or conventional napier bajra hybrid (NBH) green fodder (T-CF) for 68 days. The hydroponics maize fodder (HMF) had higher CP (13.30 vs 11.14, %), EE (3.27 vs 2.20, %), NFE (75.32 vs 53.54, %) and lower CF (6.37 vs 22.25, %), TA (1.75 vs 9.84, %) and AIA (0.57 vs 1.03, %) than NBH. HMF intake was low (0.59 kg DM/d) than NBH (1.19 kg DM/ d) by the cows. However, the DMI (2.05 and 2.17 %) was similar in both the groups. Digestibility of CP (72.46 vs 68.86, %) and CF (59.21 vs 53.25, %) was higher (P0.05) in the CP (13.29 vs 12.48, %) and TDN (68.52 vs 64, %) content was non- significant. There was 13.7% increase in the milk yield of T-HF (4.64, kg/d) than the T-CF group (4.08 kg/d). The feed conversion ratio of DM (2.12 vs 2.37), CP (0.29 vs 0.30) and TDN (1.45 vs 1.52) to produce a kg milk was better in the T-HF than the T-CF group. There was higher net profit of Rs. 12.67/- per cow/d on feeding HMF. It can be concluded that feeding of HMF to lactating cows increased the digestibility of nutrients and milk production leading to increase in net profit.

Keywords

• Cows
• Digestibility
• Feeding
• Fodder
• Hydroponics
• Lactating