Effect of Feeding Reconstituted Sorghum Grain on Nutrients Utilization and Growth Performance of Calves

Experiment was conducted to study the effect of feeding sorghum grain or reconstituted sorghum grain vs maize grain on performance of growing calves. Grains from sorghum were reconstituted by adding water at a 30% level. Growing crossbred calves (7 month age, mean body weight 100.80± 4.15) were divided into 3 groups (T₁, T₂ and T₃) of 4 animals in each group. Animals of group T₁ were fed maize grain based concentrate mixture and wheat straw as roughage, while that of T₂ and T₃ were fed concentrate mixture replacing maize grain of T₁ with sorghum grain and reconstituted sorghum grain, respectively. The CP content of sorghum grain was slightly higher than that of mai2e. The DM intake was higher (P<0.05) in T₃ as compared to T₂, but DMI per 100 kg body weight did not differ significantly among different treatment groups. The digestibility of CP and OM improved (P<0.05) when the sorghum grain was reconstituted. Digestibilities of DM, CF, EE and NFE were higher (P<0.05) in treatment group T₃ as compared to groups T₁ and T₂. Digestibilities of proximate nutrients and cell wall constituents and DCP, TDN intake were not affected by replacing maize grain with sorghum grain. Daiiy DCP and TDN intake values were significantly (P<0.05) higher in calves fed reconstituted sorghum grain (T₃) than those fed maize grain (T₁) or sorghum grain (T₂), The nutritive value in terms of DCP % and TDN % of total ration ingested by the calves were higher (P<.05) in treatment group T₃ as compared to T₁ and T₂, which did not differ significantly among themselves. The aveeage daily gains so calves in T₁, T₂ and T₃ were 463,419 and 541 g, respecttvely, resulting in higher (P<0.05) rate of gain in calves fed reconstituted sorghum grain and showed a substantial improvement in feed conversion efficiency as compared to other groups. It was concluded that maize grain could be completely replaced with sorghum grain in the concentrates of calves and feeding of reconstituted sorghum grain improve nutrients digestibility, nutritive value, growth rate and feed conversion efficiency effectively.