Effect of crop residue based complete feed blocks on nutrients digestibility and growth in buffalo calves

An experiment was conducted on twenty female buffalo calves divided into four equal groups and fed dry roughage based complete feed blocks viz. wheat straw and concentrate (T₁); wheat straw - sugarcane bagasse (1:1) and concentrate (T₂); wheat straw - mustard straw (1:1) and concentrate (T₃) and wheat straw - paddy straw (1:1) and concentrate (T₄). The roughage to concentrate ratio was 60: 40. The DMI/100 kg B.W was 2.20, 2.23, 2.09 and 2.46 kg for treatments T₁ to T₄, respectively and was higher (P<0.05) in T₄ as compared to other treatments. The digestibility of DM was higher (P<0.05) in T₁ and T₄ as compared to T₂. Similarly the digestibility of CP and NFE was higher (P<0.05) in T₁, T₃ and T₄ as compared to T₂. CF and ADF digestibility was higher (P<0.05) in T₁ and T₄ as compared to T₂ and T₃. NDF digestibility was higher (P<0.05) in T₁ followed by T₄, T₂ and T₃. The DCP and TDN intake/100 kg BW was highest in T₄ followed by T₁, T₂ and T₃. The daily gain in weight was higher (P<0.05) in T₁ and T₄ vis-à-vis T₂ and T₃ The cost (Rs.) of ration per kg gain in body weight was 35.11, 42.54, 39.47 and 30.32 in treatments 1 to 4, respectively. The study inferred that wheat straw were paddy straw were comparable to each other but more digestible regarding most of the nutrients as compared to sugarcane bagasse and mustard straw, used in complete feed blocks.