Effect of Feeding Formaldehyde Treated Groundnut Cake on Dry Matter Intake, Nutrients Digestibility and Efficiency in Lactating Crossbred cows

Fifteen crossbred cows in early stage of lactation, divided into 3 groups of 5 each on the basis of milk yield (6.0 to 10.0 kg) and body weight (301 to 468 kg), were fed on concentrate mixture based on untreated groundnut cake (GNC) (T₁), protected GNC treated with formaldehyde @ 0.5 (T₂) or 0.1 gFA/100 g CP (T₃) along with wheat straw (Triticum aestivum) ad lib. + 5 kg green berseem (Trifolium alexandrinum). Intake of DM and TDN/kg W^0.75 were affected significantly (P<0.05) by protected protein feeding. However, differences among groups for intake of CP and DCP/kg W^0.75 were non-significant. The voluntary water intake and total water intake was significantly (P<0.01) higher in group T₃ than in groups T₂ and T ₁. The digestibility of nutrients, except that of CF, had non-significant variation among groups. CF digestibility was higher (P<0.01) in group T₃ than in groups Tand T. The solid corrected milk yield in groups T, T and T was 9.91 ± 0.19, 10.11±0.39 and 10.46±0.23 kg, respectively, and value was higher (P<0.05) in group T₃ than in group T₁. Protein and energetic efficiencies remained uninfluenced by the dietary treatments.