Division of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, College of Agriculture, Nagpur-440 010, India
Online published on 29 December, 2011.
Ensiling of orange pomace (OP), containing CP 9.82, CF 7.26, EE 5.34, NFE 73.29 and TA 4.25)% (DM basis), with paddy straw (PS) in 70:30 ratio inoculated with 0.00 (T3), 0.50 (T4) and 0.75% (T5) culture of Lactobacillus plantarum for 60 days resulted in good quality silage. Twenty crossbred milch cows, randomly divided into five equal groups, were fed control ration containing dry grass (T1) mainly mixture of Sehima nervosum and Heteropogan contortus and fresh mixture of OP and PS (T2) to group 1 and 2 and those in group 3 to 5 were fed OP-PS silage of T3, T4, and T5 treatments for 84 days alongwith concentrate mixture. The DM intake, nutrients digestibility, nutritive value and N-retention were significantly higher in groups T3, T4, and T5 than in control groups (T1 and T2), however inoculated (T4 and T5) and uninoculated (T3) silage fed groups did not differ among themselves. Milk yield and 4% FCM yield in groups T3, T4 and T5 were significantly higher over the control group (T1 and T2). The performance of animals remained similar due to feeding of uninoculated (T3) and inoculated (T3 and T4) silages. The feed cost for silage fed group was lower than control group, however, silage prepared without inoculum (T3) was relatively economical.
Ensiling, Orange pomace, Paddy straw, Inoculum, Nutrient utilization, Milk production
