Evaluation of various feedstuffs of ruminants in terms of chemical composition and metabolisable energy content.

Dinesh Kumar,Chander Datt,S S Kundu,L K Das

doi:10.14202/vetworld.2015.605-609

Abstract

Aim:The aim was to determine the chemical composition and metabolisable energy (ME) content of feedstuffs used in ruminant animals using in vitro method.Materials and Methods:A total of 18 feedstuffs used for ruminant feeding including cultivated non-leguminous fodders like maize, sorghum, pearl millet, and oat; leguminous fodders like cowpea and berseem; agro-industrial by-products such as wheat bran, deoiled rice bran, rice polish, wheat straw, and concentrates such as mustard oil cake, groundnut cake, soybean meal, cotton seed cake, grains like maize, oat, wheat, and barley were taken for this study. Chemical compositions and cell wall constituents of test feeds were determined in triplicate. The crude protein (CP) content was calculated as nitrogen (N) × 6.25. True dry matter digestibility (TDMD), true organic matter digestibility (TOMD), ME, and partitioning factor (PF) values were determined by in vitro gas production technique (IVGPT).Results:The CP content of non-leguminous fodders varied from 7.29% (sorghum) to 9.51% (maize), but leguminous fodders had less variation in CP. Oilseed cakes/meals had high CP and ether extract (EE) content than other feedstuffs except rice polish, which had 12.80% EE. Wheat straw contained highest fiber fractions than the other ingredients. ME content was highest in grains (wheat-12.02 MJ/kg) and lowest in wheat straw (4.65 MJ/kg) and other roughages. TDMD of grains and oilseed cakes/meals were higher than the fodders and agro-industrial by-products. The same trend was observed for TOMD.Conclusions:It was concluded that the energy feeds showed a great variation in chemical composition and ME content. The results of this study demonstrated that the kinetics of gas production of energy feed sources differed among themselves. Evaluation of various feedstuffs is helpful in balanced ration formulation for field animals and under farm conditions for better utilization of these commonly available feed resources.

Highlights

India has a very large population of livestock both of productive and unproductive animals
It was concluded that the energy feeds showed a great variation in chemical composition and metabolisable energy (ME) content
The results of this study demonstrated that the kinetics of gas production of energy feed sources differed among themselves

Summary

Introduction

India has a very large population of livestock both of productive and unproductive animals. Ruminants are mostly fed on low-quality roughages, which are poor in protein, energy, minerals, and vitamin contents. Addition of cereal and leguminous fodder in ruminant diets can improve the utilization of low-quality roughages mainly through the supply of N to rumen microbes. The ruminants can make efficient use of mill by-products, crop residues, and other non-conventional feed sources being equipped with rumen microbial ecosystem. The majority of livestock is fed a very small quantum of concentrates and productive animals are fed either balanced concentrate or raw ingredients, which are traditionally mixed on farms and which do not meet the complete nutrient requirements of livestock and can be called unbalanced [1]. Knowledge regarding the nutrient composition of different feedstuffs

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