EVALUATING VARYING LEVELS OF CONCENTRATE ON PRODUCTIVE AND METABOLIC PERFORMANCE OF NILI-RAVI BUFFALO HEIFER CALVES - Z. M. Iqbal; M. Abdullah; K. Javed; M. A. Jabbar; Y. A. Ditta (Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 2018)
A study was conducted with an aim to investigate the effect of varying levels of concentrate for optimum growth and metabolic parameters on Nili Ravi buffalo heifers (n=30) of similar age (5±1 months) and weight (93.95±5.59 kg) for a duration of 8 months. The selected heifers were randomly divided into three dietary treatments (n=10) and were offered concentrate (Metabolizable energy: 2.6 Mcal/kg and Crude Protein: 17%) at the rate of 0.5 % (low; A) , 1% (medium; B) and 1.5% (high; C) of their body weight. The data were analyzed through general linear model (Proc. GLM) using statistical software SAS 9.1 and differences among treatment means were determined through LSD. As designed, the estimates for average daily protein and energy intake were higher (P<0.001) for high concentrate level group compare with other two groups. The differences in intake were unable to affect (P=0.258) average daily gain of heifers i.e. 497.32±17.92, 503.63±19.09 and 532.77±20.67 g/d for treatment groups A, B and C, respectively. Thus, feed efficiency estimates were better for low concentrate level group as compared with medium and high level. Dietary treatments did not affect (P>0.05) the blood chemistry however, serum urea concentration and digestibility parameters (dry matter, crude protein and NDF) were increased by increasing dietary concentrate level. Thus, inclusion of concentrate @ 0.5% of body weight is concluded better for rearing Nili-Ravi heifers from 6 to 14 months of age. and reduce productivity. A lot of scientific literature is
Keywords: journal article; Heifers; concentrate levels; digestibility; protein; energy