Effect of feeding processed poultry litter with or without molasses on the growth of buffalo calves

Abstract

Saw dust (1-year-old) based layer poultry litter (PL) was deep- stacked (DS) or sun-dried (SD) and respective processed PL was mixed with 7% molasses, 1 % common salt as DSPL and SDPL supplements isonitrogenous to the conventional control concentrate mixture (C). The DSPL and SDPL supplements replaced 40% (w/w) C as experimental groups T₠and T₂ , respectively. These concentrate mixtures were supplemented to wheat straw-based complete diets. Two growth trials of 90 days each were conducted on 15 Murrah buffalo calves (1½ - to 2-year-old and 139.5 ± 5.5 kg live weight) divided equally into 3 groups were offered control (C), T₠and T₂ complete diet as a single meal. In the first 90-day trial molasses was additionally mixed 0.2 kg/kg DM with T₠and T₂ diets, whereas in the subsequent 90-day trial period molasses was not added. The comparable daily DM intake (DMI) under all the diets tested was associated with the highest digestibility of nutrients, available ME and N-retention only under the control diet. However, exclusion of molasses improved both the nutrient utilization and daily weight gain under the T₠and T₂ diets. Similar trend was observed for the rumen parameters estimated in the study. The better performance of DSPL over SDPL complete diet showed the potential utility of deep-stacked PL in wheat straw-based complete diets for buffalo calves.