Nutritional Evaluation of Oat (Avena Sativa L.) Varieties in Crossbred Heifers

Two varieties of oat, namely UPO-212 and UPO-240 were evaluated against Kent, a popular variety of oat. A conventional digestion trial was conducted with 18 cross-bred heifers using freshly harvested forage at about 50 per cent flowering stage. The new varieties were superior to Kent only in respect of DM, CP and NDF content. The voluntary intake of DM, OM, CP and DOM expressed as g/kg W^0.75 and % of L.W. did not differ among varieties. However, the DDM intake (as g/kg W^0.75, % of L.W.) was significantly higher for Kent compared to UPO-240 and UPO-212 which remained similar to each other. The DCP intake (as % of L.W.) was significantly higher for Kent compared to UPO-240 but non-significantly different from UPO-212. The DE intake (Mcal/100 kg L.W.) was significantly higher for Kent compared to both UPO-240 and UPO-212 which remained similar from each other. However, when DE intake was expressed in terms of Kcal/kg W^0.75, the intake and OMD for Kent was significantly higher than UPO-212. The digestibility coefficient for NDF and ADF were significantly higher for Kent compared to UPO-240 and UPO-212. The digestibility coefficient for CP was significantly higher for Kent than that of UPO-240, but not with UPO-212. It may be concluded that the new varieties of oat namely UPO-212 and UPO-240 are inferior to Kent in respect of content, intake and digestibility of nutrients.