Nutritive Value of Barnyard, Browntop and Finger Millet Straw Based Diets in Lactating Dairy Cattle

Rakesh D

doi:10.56093/ijans.v96i2.173137

Authors

Rakesh D Department of Animal Nutrition, Veterinary College Hebbal, Bengaluru- 560024

https://doi.org/10.56093/ijans.v96i2.173137

Keywords:

Finger millet, Barnyard millet, Browntop millet, Feed intake, Digestibility, Lactating cattle, Milk yield.

Abstract

A study was conducted to evaluate the nutritive value of barnyard (BYS), browntop (BTS) and finger millet straw (FMS) based diets in lactating dairy cattle through two phases. In Phase I, proximate composition, fibre fractionation, in vitro gas production and digestibility of the straws and compounded feed mixture (CFM) were analyzed. In Phase II, a feeding trial was conducted on six late-lactation crossbred cows in Latin square design with three treatments: T1 (FMS + CFM), T2 (BYS + CFM) and T3 (BTS + CFM). CP was lowest in FMS (3.80%) and highest in BTS (5.23%), while lignin was highest in FMS (4.28%) and lowest in BTS (3.19%). BYS showed greater in vitro gas production (34.33 ml/200 mg DM) and ME (7.10 MJ/kg DM) compared to BTS (22.41 ml/200 mg DM and 5.55 MJ/kg DM). In vitro digestibility values results indicated that BYS and BTS were nutritionally superior to FMS. In vivo, total dry matter intake was highest in BTS-fed cows (12.78 kg/day), followed by BYS (12.41 kg/day) and FMS (12.03 kg/day). CP intake and digestibility of DM, OM, CP, NDF and cellulose were higher in BYS and BTS diets, while ADF and hemicellulose digestibility did not differ. Milk yield and 4% FCM were higher in BYS (7.28 and 7.12 kg/day) and BTS (7.22 and 7.16 kg/day) diets than FMS (6.89 and 6.81 kg/day). The study concludes that barnyard and browntop millet straws are nutritionally superior to finger millet straw and can serve as sustainable alternate roughages for lactating dairy cattle.

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