Performance of Lactating Yaks based on Feeding Normal visa-vis Quality Protein Maize

Maize abundantly cultivated in the North Eastern region of India, mainly for human consumption, although it’s having good potential to be used as a livestock feed to improve their productive performances. Presently, different improved varieties of maize are cultivating worldwide for use in animal feeds. Studies indicated normal maize is deficient in protein including the most essential amino acids, however, the quality protein maize (QPM), a special maize verity have a balance ratio of leucine to iso-leucine which helps in enhancement of the biological value of the protein in livestock and poultry. The present study was planned to assess the efficacy of normal maize Vis-a-Vis QPM on performance of lactating yaks.

Ten lactating yaks of uniform age, body weight and pariety were randomly divided into two groups of five animals in each and were fed on mixed rations for a period of 112 days. The normal maize part of the concentrates in Ration-1 (R₁) was completely (w/w) replaced with QPM in Ration-R₂ and offered to group T₁ and T₂, respectively. Standard managemental practices were adopted for all the experimental animals. At the end, a digestibility trial of 6 days duration was carried out in all yaks.

The average DMI/100 kg body weight and average daily gain were higher with better feed efficiency in the group T₂ fed diets based on quality protein maize. The nutritive values in terms of digestible crude protein (DCP) and total digestible nutrients (TDN) showed no significant variations between the groups and the values were 5.11±0.52 and 58.15±0.74 and 5.43±0.42 and 59.78±1.11 per cent in T₁ and T₂, respectively. Apparent digestibility of dry matter as well as in all organic matters and their nitrogen balances were comparatively higher (P>0.05) in T₂ group. It was concluded that normal maize can easily be replace with quality protein maize for lactating yaks for better economic returns.