Animal Nutrition Division, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar-243 122, India
Online published on 21 January, 2012.
Experiments were conducted on adult male Holstein Friesian (HF) cattle, its crosses with Hariana (HF x Hariana) cattle and Murrah buffaloes to study comparative utilization of nutrients from a ration mainly comprising of wheat straw and deoiled groundnut cake. HF cattle consumed significantly (P<0.05) lower quantity of wheat straw and showed decreased digestibility of DM, OM, NFE and energy in comparison to HB x Hariana cattle and buffaloes which did not differ from each other. Methane energy losses as %GE intake were, however, significantly (P<0.01) higher in HF x Hariana than in HF or buffaloes. The ME intakes were 57.7±4.30, 88.1 ±7.20 and 94.6±3.42 K Cal/kgW0.75 (P<0.05) in HF, HF x Hariana and Murrah buffaloes, respectively.
