Body Weight and Feed Intake Dynamics in Early and Mid-lactation in Gir Cows Supplemented with Bypass Fat and Choline

Abstract

A study was conducted with eighteen healthy Gir cows which were selected and divided into 3 groups, each of 6 cows, on the basis of previous 300-d milk yield, parity and body weight. The cows were subjected to adaptation period of 21 days (from -15 to +7 day peri-partum). The cows in control group were fed only basal ration while, cows under treatment-1 (T-1) were supplemented with bypass fat (BPF) @ 10 g/lit. of milk yield/cow in addition to basal ration, whereas treatment-2 (T-2) received a combination of BPF @ 10 g/lit. of milk yield/cow and bypass choline (BPC) @ 45 g/day/cow in addition to basal ration, for 168 days from 7^th to 175^th day post-partum. During ascending phase of lactation, body weight loss of the cows was minimum in T-1 (-36.67 kg, 10.39%) group, whereas in descending phase, the regain in body weight was maximum in T-2 group (+56.00 kg, 18.10%) as compared to other two groups. The dry matter intake (DMI, kg/d) in T-1 (9.10±0.07) and T-2 (9.01±0.04) groups was found to be significantly (P<0.05) higher than that in control (8.83±0.05) group. Significantly (P<0.05) higher DMI was observed in T-1 and T-2 during descending phase of lactation from the 15^th to 25^th week of lactation. The additional energy intake from bypass fat and choline supplementation contributed towards reduction of body weight loss of lactating Gir cows whereas the palatability and intake of feed were positively influenced by the addition of bypass fat and bypass choline.