Digestibility of nutrients in crossbred heifers supplemented with hydroponically sprouted maize grains

Abstract

A study was conducted to find out the digestibility of nutrients in heifers fed hydroponically sprouted maize grains. Hydroponically sprouted maize grains were produced in a hydroponics chamber (greenhouse) measuring about 25 ft × 10 ft × 10 ft equipped with automatic sprayer irrigation of tap water. Three crossbred heifers (avg. BW 271.22 kg) were fed individually 2 kg standard conventional concentrate mixture along with 10 kg hydroponically sprouted maize grains and ad lib. jowar straw daily to meet their nutrient requirements for a period of 30 days followed by a 6 days digestion trial. The hydroponically sprouted maize grains (7 days) looked like a mat of 20–30 cm height consisting of germinated seeds roots and leaves. The increase in the fresh weight of the hydroponically sprouted maize grains than the seed weight was 5–6 folds. The DM content of the hydroponically sprouted maize grains was 18.30% and the CP, EE, CF, NFE, TA and AIA content (on % DM basis) was 13.30, 3.27, 6.37, 75.32, 1.75 and 0.57, respectively. The DM intake per 100 kg BW of the heifers was 2.03 and the roughage:concentrate ratio was maintained at 66:34. The digestibility (%) of DM, OM, CP, EE, CF and NFE of the ration was 61.35, 65.08, 67.74, 72.81, 51.73 and 68.23, respectively. The total ration had 12.02% CP, 8.17% DCP and 63.20% TDN. It can be concluded that hydroponically sprouted maize grains can be supplemented in the ration of heifers in situations, where conventional fodder is not available or cannot be grown due to any adverse conditions.