Effect of diets differing in partitioning factor on Dry Matter Intake, Organic Matter Digestibility and Nitrogen Metabolism in Crossbred lactating cows

Effect of increasing ‘Partitioning Factor’ (PF) of diets on feed intake, change in body weight, nitrogen (N) metabolism and urinary allantoin excretion (UAe) was studied in 6 multiparous crossbred (HF x Bos indicus or Jersey x Bos indicus) cows in mid-lactation. The diet included finger millet straw (FMS) offered ad libitum along with one of the three compound feed mixtures (CFM) differing in PF. The lactation experiment was of 15 weeks in 3 equal periods in n Latin square design. Gas production kinetics, substrate degradation and PF were measured. The rate of gas production (k) ranged from 0.0581 to 0.0620 (i.e., 6.7%), and did not correlate with PF which varied from 3.01 to 3.33 (i.e., 10.6%). Intake and digestibility of DM and its components, body weight and measures of milk yield were not affected by dietary treatments. Intake, faecal excretion, urine excretion and balance of N, as well as parameters of microbial N supply were also not affected by treatment. In general, differences in the PF of the diets had no effect on performance of cows.