Milk Urea Nitrogen of Healthy and Repeat Breeder Buffaloes Reared under Two Different Feeding Systems

Abstract

Milk urea nitrogen (MUN) measurement is a convenient and non-invasive method to assess the protein and energy nutrition of dairy cattle. The present study was taken up with 36 lactating buffaloes maintained under two different feeding systems i.e. 18 each from intensive (dairy farm) or semi-intensive (on-farm, field) conditions to study the effect of production, managemental and nutritional variables on baseline MUN. Milk sample were collected from both systems for 8 weeks from 6 buffaloes each in early (0–45), mid (46–150) and late (>150 days in milk) stages of lactation. The milk samples were collected on alternate days i.e. from morning milking on 1st and 5th day and from evening milking on 3rd and 7th day. Additionally, MUN was estimated for 7d from 6 animals with history of repeat breeding in each system. The system wise nutrient profile of feedstuffs, animal performance data along with environmental profile were fed into CNCPS version 5.0 to evaluate the diets and to formulate optimized diets for repeat breeding animals. Subsequently, the effect of feeding such diets on MUN levels and post AI conception was studied. The baseline MUN levels were influenced by production, nutritional and managemental variables. The average baseline MUN (mg/dl) vs. the MUN in repeat breeding buffaloes (P 0.05). The feeding of optimized (using CNCPS version 5.0) rations resulted in a significant (P<0.05) decrease in the MUN (mg/dl) in repeat breeding farm (10.73±0.27) and field (8.12±0.24) buffaloes and four out of six farm buffaloes and two out of six field buffaloes have conceived after feeding the test diet. It is concluded that MUN can be employed as a potential tool to evaluate protein nutrition of dairy buffaloes.