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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
The aim of present study was to find out the effect of ‘challenge feeding’ on performance and economics of milk yield of crossbred cows. Eighteen advance pregnant crossbred cows were selected 60 days before expected date of calving and were divided into 3 groups i.e. control (T1), treatment (T2) and (T3) on the basis of milk yield, parity and body weight for this study. During the pre-partum period, animals of T1 control group were fed 1 kg concentrate for maintenance per day from 60th day to prior to calving till the day of parturition. T2 group animals were fed 1 kg concentrate for maintenance plus 1.5 kg concentrate as challenge feed per day from 60th day to 22nd day prior to calving and from 22nd day prior to calving till parturition animals were fed 1 kg concentrate for maintenance plus 2 kg concentrate as challenge feed per day. T3 group animals were fed 1 kg concentrate for maintenance plus 2 kg concentrate as challenge feed per day from 60th day to 22nd prior to calving and from 22nd prior to calving till parturition animals were fed 1 kg concentrate for maintenance plus 2.5 kg concentrate as challenge feed per day. During the postpartum period, animals of T1, T2 and T3 group were fed based on their milk yield as per thumb rule i.e. 1 kg concentrate per day for maintenance and 1 kg concentrate per 2.5 kg of milk production. The mean DMI (kg) in T1, T2 and T3 cows during pre-partum period was 7.82, 9.04 and 10.09 kg respectively which did significantly between treatments. The postpartum DMI was significantly higher (P<0.05) in T3 (11.40 kg) as compared to T2 (10.74 kg) and T1 (9.66 kg) treatments. The overall mean daily milk yield per animal was significantly higher (P<0.05) in T3 (11.03 kg) as compared to T2 (9.85 kg) & T1 (6.96 kg). The difference in mean calf birth weight T1, T2 and T3 was 19.9, 23.5 & 24.6 kg respectively. The overall means of body weight gain of cow in the treatment T1, T2 and T3 groups were 31.33, 41.33 and 46.83 kg, respectively. It was concluded that the practice of challenge feeding of crossbred cows improved the production performance during early lactation without affecting their periparturient health and was found to be economical.