Abstract
This experiment was conducted to study the effect of protein rich ingredients supplementation into concentrate diet on body growth and some biochemical blood parameters of crossbred heifers. Six heifers aged above two years were divided into two equal groups: (a) control (farm feeding practices) and (b) protein supplemented. Soybean meal and mustard oil cake were added in concentrate mixture as protein supplement in supplementary group. The heifers of both dietary groups had access to required amount of para and german grass as basal roughage. Growth measurement parameters were studied at fortnightly; blood collection and its analysis for various blood metabolites were assayed at thirty days intervals. It was noticed that heifer dry matter intake was significantly (P=0.001) affected by the diet and found higher in supplemented group than control group. About 16% higher (P=0.149) body weight gain was found in supplemented group compared to control group. Protein supplemented heifer showed 0.12, 0.74 and 0.26 cm higher gains for wither height (P=0.01), body length (P=0.002) and heart girth (P=0.016), respectively. The blood biochemical profile revealed that serum urea and blood urea nitrogen concentrations were higher (P=0.015) in protein supplemented group compared to that of the control group. In conclusion, supplementation of protein rich ingredients in heifer diets might increase the growth measurements and blood serum protein status which would be more advantageous for the development of dairy herd replacement stock
 J. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 17(1): 45–49, March 2019
Highlights
Heifer rearing is a major portion of dairy herd turnover and farmers want to rear heifers for entering into the herd at optimum weight and age to acquire the best production and fertility achievement (Tegasc, 2014)
The objective of this research was to observe the effect of feeding protein rich ingredients along with concentrate mixture on the growth and nutritional status of the dairy heifers
About 23% higher (P=0.001) DMI was found in protein supplemented group than that of the control group
Summary
Heifer rearing is a major portion of dairy herd turnover and farmers want to rear heifers for entering into the herd at optimum weight and age to acquire the best production and fertility achievement (Tegasc, 2014). Soybean meal (Glycine max) and mustard oil cake (Brassica napus) are well known protein source ingredients for ruminant feeding. It has been scientifically proved that addition of fish meal in the concentrate mixture improve the reproductive performance of heifer (Alam et al, 2012). Monitoring of nutritional status of the animal are vital because these are the indicators of health status (Ate et al, 2009); and used for measuring energy and protein status. These indicators used as an adjunct to other measures such as body weight and body condition score that reflect the integrated effects of nutrition over time (Hammond, 1997)
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