Effect of Feeding Whole Sugarcane Based Ration on Production and Reproductive Performance in Crossbred Cattle

A feeding trial of six month duration was conducted with 20 lactating crossbred cows to study the effect of sugarcane feeding on production and reproduction performance. The animals under treatment T₀ were fed with concentrate and green maize as conventional fodder, while the animals under treatments T₁, T₂ and T₃ were fed with concentrate and chopped green whole sugarcane @ 50%, 75% and 100% of the total roughage dry matter requirement along with jowar kadabi, respectively. The DM intake (kg/day) was 9.42 ± 0.87,8.76 ± 0.59, 8.73 ± 0.55,8.90 ± 0.69 and DM digestibility was 62.95 ±2.14,60.57 ± 1.90,63.23 ± 2.30,66.28 ±3.14% in the treatments T₀, T₁, T₂ and T₃, respectively. Whole Sugarcane based ration provides sufficient energy for milk production in lactating animals. There was no adverse effect on the reproductive performance except the Ca content in blood serum was observed to be reduced. There was no adverse effect on the Ca and P concentration of milk. It is therefore, concluded that, whole sugarcane can be included in the ration of lactating crossbred cows even up to 100% as roughage without any adverse effect on digestibility of nutrients, milk production and reproductive performance of cows.