Nutritional Evaluation of Rice Bean in Buffalo Calves

Rice bean (Phaseolus calcaratus), a moong-like reddish legume is grown under Jess Irrigated conditions but has not found much acceptance for human consumption due to its hard seed coat. The ground (10 mesh size) rice bean was fed to buffalo calves replacing 50% each of the cereals and deoiled cake of the concentrate mixture (based on chemical analysis and in sacco DMD studies). The plane of nutrition (DM, DCP and TDM intakes) and digestibility coefficients of DM, CF and EE were comparable with the control group of buffalo calves. It was suggested that 50% each of cereal grains and deoiled seed cake of the concentrate mixture could be replaced by the rice bean in the ration of ruminants.