Chemical Composition, In vitro Gas Production and Ruminal Fermentation of Cottonseed Meal and Certain Conventional Protein Sources in Buffalo Inoculum

The price of conventional protein sources like soybean and peanut has increased markedly in recent years resulting in urgent need for exploring alternate protein sources. Due to increase in availability of cottonseed meal (CSM) in cotton-growing areas of India as compared to other oil seed meals, CSM is becoming one of the major components of concentrate mixture (CM) fed to animals.

A study was undertaken to assess the chemical composition and in vitro nutritional worth of CSM in comparison to conventional oilseed cakes used in livestock feeding.

The CP content of protein sources varied from 47.85% in CSM to 47.76% in soybean meal (SBM). The net gas production (NGP, ml/g DM/24 h) in CSM (160.48) was lower (P<0.05) than SBM (198.04) and MC (199.55). The metabolizable energy (ME, MJ/kg DM) was higher (P<0.05) in MC and lowest (P<0.05) in DMC. The partitioning factor (PF, mg/ml), OM digestibility (%), DM digestibility (%), NDF digestibility (%), efficiency of microbial mass production (EMMP, %), fermented CO₂ was reported to be higher (P<0.05) in CSM compared to conventional oilseed cakes. The TVFA (mM/dl) production in CSM (6.63) was higher (P<0.05) than GNC (6.45) but lower (P<0.05) than SBM (6.97), MC (7.11) and DMC (7.25). The fermentation efficiency (FE, %) in CSM (74.70) and GNC (74.97) was higher (P<0.05) than conventional oilseed cakes. The VFA utilization index (VFA UI) was highest (P<0.05) in SBM (3.81) and lowest (P<0.05) in GNC (3.39). The results revealed that CSM has the potential to be used as a protein source for livestock feeding.