International Journal of Cow Science

  • Year: 2005
  • Volume: 1
  • Issue: 2

Effect of level of concentrate supplement on the voluntary intake of Sorghum Fodder in crossbred Heifers

  • Author:
  • Mesfin Dejene1, Ashok Kumar, Ripusudan Kumar, Prasoon Chand Saxena, Nidhi Garg
  • Total Page Count: 3
  • DOI:
  • Page Number: 30 to 32

G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar 263 145, India.

Abstract

Sixteen crossbred (Sahiwal x Jersay) heifers of about the same age and body weight were randomly divided in to 4 groups of 4 each to study the effect of level of concentrate supplementation (CS: 0, 0.75, 1.5 & 2.0kg/d/animal), in addition to ad libitum access to green sorghum fodder (GSF) variety Rio, at two stages of growth on the voluntary dry matter intake (DMI) of GSF. Results revealed that whole ration DMI (kg/100kgBW) was significantly improved with of 0.75kg/d. Beyond this level, there was in-significant change on DMI of the whole ration. The increased concentrate level of CS led to a significant (P<0.01) decrease DMI of GSF. As the concentrate level went from 0 to 2.0kg, voluntary DMI of fodder decreased from 2.68 to 1.92kg/100kgBW. Substitution rates (SR) of sorghum by concentrate was increased with increasing level of concentrate in the ration and it was higher in stage-II (0.4132) than stage-I (0.2473). The cutting stage also significantly (P<0.01) affected fodder DMI.

Keywords

Sorghum fodder, concentrate supplementation, Intake, crossbred heifers, Substitution rates