Nutrient Utilization and Rumen Fermentation Pattern of Sugarcane Bagasse Based Complete Diets in Buffalo Bulls

Two complete diets (40% sugarcane bagasse), one pelleted (expander-extruder processed) and other in mash form were compared with a conventional diet (concentrate mixture and sugarcane bagasse fed separately in 60:40 ratio) by feeding to 3 permanently rumen fistulated Murrah buffalo bulls using 3x3 latin square design. The chemical composition of diets was similar and DMI was comparable but higher than the ICAR recommended level on all the diets. The digestibility of DM, OM and CP and N balances were significantly (P<0.05) higher on complete diets than on conventional diet. Among the complete diets, pelleted diet was having higher nutrient digestibility and N balance than mash diet and resulted in increased DCP and TDN contents of the ration. All the ruminal N fractions except food and protozoal nitrogen and TVFA peaked at 2 h post-feeding. TVFA concentration, total N, TCA-insoluble protein N and residual N increased gradually from conventional diet to mash and expander-extruder-processed diet. These results indicated that sugarcane bagasse can be used as sole roughage source in the diets of buffaloes and pelleting of such complete diet improved the nutrient utilization.