Nutrient Digestibility, Growth and Reproductive Performance in Crossbred Heifers fed Varying Levels of Vegetable Fat

In a randomised block design 20 crossbred heifers (Av. 112 kg. b.wt.), randomly divided into four groups of five each, were fed concentrate mixture with no additional fat (T1) or supplemented with 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5% rice bran oil in groups T2, T3 and T4, respectively. In addition, the animals got seasonal green fodder (2 to 5 kg) and wheat straw ad lib during 410 days feeding experiment.

The digestibilities of DM, OM, CP, CF and NFE did not vary among all the groups but EE digestibility in groups T2, T3 and T4 was significantly higher (P<0.05) than in control group. All the animals were in positive N-halance and the variation among groups was non-significant. Body weight gain during 410 dats period, in groups T3 and T4 (499 and 504 g/d) was similar to control group (468g/d) at similar DMI/100 kg body weight. All the animals reached puberty within 642–659 days but age at sexual maturity was lower in groups T1 and T3 (703 and 675 days) than in groups T2 and T4 (835 and 787 days). The groups T1 and T3 required less services/conception (1.2) as compared to groups T2 (3.0) and T4 (2.4) and 75–80% animals conceived at I^st service in groups T3 and T1 as compared to 40% in groups T2 and T4. However, these differences in reproductive parameters were statistically nonsignificant. It may be concluded that addition of rice bran oil upto 3.5% to concentrate mixture prepared from deoiled ingredients did not have any deleterious effect on the nutrient digestibilities or reproductive performance of crossbred heifers.