Effect of Feeding Urea Treated Wheat Straw Supplemented with Formaldehyde Treated Groundnut Cake on Growth Performance of Crossbred Calves

Twenty crossbred (Tharparkar x Brown Swiss) calves (8–10 m, 118.25± 18.25 kg) were randomly divided Into 4 groups and fed 4 types of feed combinations viz. Wheat straw + concentrate mixture with untreated GN Cake (T₁), wheat straw + cone. mix. with formaldehyde treated GN Cake (T₂), urea treated wheat straw + cone. mix. with untreated GN cake (T₃), and urea treated straw + cone, mix with formaldehyde treated GN Cake (T₄), for a period of 120 d. The average DM intake was significantly (P<0.01) higher on diets T₃ and T₄, compared to other two diets, considering the whole period of growth. Except for CF and NFE digestibilities, which were significantly higher for T₂, those for other nutrient were statistically non significant. Although N intake (g/d) was significantly higher (P<0.01) for the diets T₃ and T₄ the N retention (g/d) was similar for all the diets. However, N retained as % of N intake or % of N absorbed, showed significant (P<0.01) variation among the diets, T₁ and T₂ being higher, and T₂ having the highest talues. The average daily gain was 443.2±20.34, 473.00±19.34, 504.60 ± 50.61 and 536.6 ± 43.14 g/d for the diets T₁, T₂, T₃ and T₄ respectively. Though the treated straw group gave higher growth rates, the variation among the treatments was non significant. However, feed required per kg gain and feed cost per kg gain were both lower In the dietary combination of untreated straw and treated cake (bypass protein).