Centre of Advanced Studies in Animal Nutrition, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar - 243 122, India.
Present address: *Department of Animal Sciences, CA, CAU, Imphal.
Twelve adult dry cross-bred cows of about 61/2 years of age were divided randomly into two groups. Group-1 and-2 were fed restricted amount of wheat bran and defatted rice bran respectively to meet CP requirement for maintenance alongwith ad-libitum wheat straw and 1 kg of available green fodder for every alternate day to supply carotene requirement for 16 weeks. The intake of straw: bran was 66.0: 34.0 and 65.4: 34.6 in group-1 and-2 respectively. The overall mean DMI/100 kg body weight was statistically higher (P<0.05) in group-1 (1.74±0.03 kg) than in group-2 (1.63±0.02 kg) but the mean body weight gain was non-significant effect i.e. 22.0 kg and 20.5 kg for group-1 and -2 respectively. It may be concluded that both the grainless rations were capable of supplying maintenance requirement of adult cows.
