Effect of different feeding regimes on nutrient digestibility and nutritive value in lactating punganur cows

Present experiment was conducted to study the effect of different feeding regimes on nutrient digestibility and nutritive value in lactating Punganur cows. Sixteen lactating Punganur cows which were randomly (CRD) allotted to four experimental groups with four animals in each group. Animals of control (T1) group were maintained as per the feeding practice followed by the farmers rearing punganur cows in Chittoor district (Hedge lucerne, paddy straw, concentrate mixture), T2 group fed with super napier grass, paddy straw, concentrate mixture, T3 group fed with paddy straw, concentrate mixture, UMMB and T4 group fed with TMR. Results indicated that average milk yield (kg/d) was found to be significantly (P<0.05) higher in T4 or T3 as compared to T2 or T1 and FCM yield (kg/d) was also found to be significantly (P<0.05) highest in T4 followed by T3 or T2 and lowest in T1. The milk composition reported that protein and lactose (%) were (P<0.05) higher in T4. The digestibility (%) of DM and OM was higher in T3 than T1 and T4 groups, while the digestibility of other nutrients did not indicate any difference among the treatments. The plane of nutrition indicated DMI (kg/d) was in order i.e.T3>T2 >T4 >T1. The nutritive value in terms of DCP (%) was found to be significantly (P<0.05) higher in T1 & T4 than T2 &T3, whereas the TDN (%) did not differ among the treatment groups. It was concluded that average milk & FCM yield is highest for TMR group, while cost economics of milk production revealed that the feed cost per kg milk and FCM yield was lower (P>0.05) in T3 group.