Effect of Supplementation of Deoiled Mahua Seed Cake and Guar Meal on the Nutrient Utilization and Growth Performance in Crossbred Calves

The present study was to assess the performance of crossbred calves fed on diets supplemented with deoiled mahua seed cake and guar meal as functional feed using twenty one crossbred male calves (average age 4.5 month; average weight 67.6 kg) divided into three equal groups (T₁,T₂ and T₃) according to completely randomization design. Animals of T₁ were fed with concentrate mixture containing groundnut cake as protein supplement, while in T₂ and T₃, deoiled mahua seed cake (DMSC) and guar meal (GM) was included at 10% of concentrate mixture. The intake of DM and OM, and digestibility coefficients of DM, OM, CP, NDF and ADF by crossbred calves was similar among three treatments. Overall average daily gain of T₂ was significantly (P<0.05) higher than T₁. Intake of DCP and TDN were comparable among three treatments. Overall FCR was significantly (P<0.05) lower in T₁ than T₂, however, FCR of T₃ was comparatively better than T₁. Thus it was concluded that the feeding of DMSC or GM at 10% level in the concentrate mixture can safely replace other ingredient of concentrate mixture without any compromise on performance in crossbred calves.