Effects of Varying Levels of Fungal (Arachniotus sp.) Treated Wheat Straw as an Ingredient of Total Mixed Ration on Growth Performance and Nutrient Digestibility in Nili Ravi Buffalo Calves.

F Shahzad,F Ahmed,M N Tahir,S Ahmed,J A Bhatti,Z Kamran,M Asim,A S Chaudhry,M A Jabbar,I Irshad,M Abdullah,T Mehmood

doi:10.5713/ajas.15.0429

Abstract

The study was carried out to explore the effects of replacing wheat straw with fungal treated wheat straw as an ingredient of total mixed ration (TMR) on the growth performance and nutrient digestibility in Nili Ravi buffalo male calves. Fungal treated wheat straw was prepared using Arachniotus sp. Four TMRs were formulated where wheat straw was replaced with 0 (TMR1), 33 (TMR2), 67 (TMR3), and 100% (TMR4) fungal treated wheat straw in TMR. All TMRs were iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous. The experimental TMRs were randomly assigned to four groups of male calves (n = 6) according to completely randomized design and the experiment continued for four months. The calves fed TMR2 exhibited a significant improve in dry matter intake, average daily weight gain, feed conversion ratio and feed economics compared to other groups. The same group also showed higher digestibility of dry matter, crude protein, neutral-, and acid detergent fibers than those fed on other TMRs. It is concluded that TMR with 33% fungal-treated wheat straw replacement has a potential to give an enhanced growth performance and nutrient digestibility in male Nili Ravi buffalo calves.

Highlights

The livestock sector is an imperative part of agriculture in Pakistan
The results showed that TMR2 improved (p
Further increase in fungal treated Wheat straw (WS) in The ingredient and chemical mixed rations (TMR) beyond this level led to decrease in ADG that corresponds well to decrease in dry matter (DM) intake

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The livestock sector is an imperative part of agriculture in Pakistan. Livestock accounted for approximately 55.9% of agriculture value and 11.8% in country’s gross domestic product during 2013 through 2014 Sci. 29:359-364 residue that is emerging as a dominant feed source for a guidelines of the Committee on Use of Animals in Research sustainable crop-livestock production system The potential utilization of corn stover can minimize the cost for growth of these microorganisms and enhance microbial biomass protein production by Preparation of fungal treated wheat straw Fungal treated WS was prepared according to the method described (Faisal Shahzad, personal communication). Research is being carried out since the last recommendations (NRC, 2001) for CP and energy for the decade to exploit the nutritive potential of fungal treated growing animals and contained similar concentrations of CP crop residues but is restricted to the laboratory level in (13.5%) and energy (2.4 Mcal/kg) on dry matter basis.

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

CONCLUSIONS