Evaluation of some potential complete rations economic milk production in crossbred cows

An experiment was conducted to evaluate some potential complete rations based on locally available feed ingredients and seasonal fodders for nutrient utilization and economic milk production in crossbred lactating cows. Four complete rations (CR1, CR2, CR3 and CR4) were prepared using concentrate mixture, berseem green, berseem hay, wheat straw and urea fermented wheat straw. The roughage: concentrate ratio in CR1, CR2 and CR3 was 50:50 where as it was 40:60 in CR4. Twenty high yielding crossbred cows of the universitydairy farm were randomly divided into four groups of five animals in each group on the basis of their body weight and milk yield and were offered the four complete rations randomly for a period of 90 days. The CP of the treatment complete rations i.e. CR2, CR3 and CR4 ranged between 15–16%. The voluntary dry matter intake (DMI) of the animals in all the groups ranged between 15–20 kg/animal/day. The DMI of animals fed CR3 was significantly (P<0.05) higher than the animals fed other complete rations indicating the positive effect of the inclusion of the green fodder without any dry roughage. The digestibilities of DM, OM, CF and NFE were significantly (P< 0.05) higher in CR3 in comparison to CR2 and CR4 but were comparable to the control (CR1). The total milk yield (18.63±0.81 to 20.80±0.95, l/day), FCM yield (18.21±1.15 to 20.99±1.30, l/day), SNF (8.39±0.01 to 8.48±0.03,%) and fat (3.87±0.04 to 4.14±0.13,%) contents were statistically comparable among the groups. The total cost of milk produced per day was also statistically comparable among the groups. The mean value of the profit earned (Rs)/animal/day in CR3 (152.86±4.87) group was significantly (P<0.05) higher than CR2 (127.87±3.65) and CR4 (135.07±5.06) groups. The complete ration based on mixture of legume and non-legume fodder was more palatable and was better utilized than the complete rations containing either leguminous or non-leguminous fodder.