PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF CORN AND CORN STOVER SILAGES WITH DIFFERENT FEED ADDITIVES IN GROWING SAHIWAL CALVES

A 90 days study was undertaken to test the performance of 5different silages (1. silage of maize hybrid, 2. silage of corn stovers,3. Silage of corn stover+6% solution of molasses and 0.3% urea,4. Silage of corn stover+ 6% molasses, 5. Silage of corn stover+ 6% solution of lime) in growing Sahiwal calves. 25 Sahiwal calves of similar age and body weigh were dived into five groups A,B,C,D & E, respectively and were kept in separate sheds for individual feeding. Group A was fed corn silage and served as control and while groups B,C,D and E were reared on respective corn stover silages at ad libitum intakes. Fattening ration having 16.73% crude protein and 73 % total digestible nutrients was also provided at the rate of 1.5% of body weight. Animals were weighed at the start of experiment and fortnightly thereafter. At last week of the study a 5 days digestibility trial was performed through complete collection of urine and feces. Blood was also collected for the analysis of blood urea nitrogen and blood glucose. Dry matter, Organic matter, NDF and ether extract digestibility values were higher in animals fed corn hybrid silage based diet as compared to those fed other diets. Inversely, animals fed corn stovers silage with 6% molasses solution showed higher ADF digestibility. Similarly, higher CP digestibility was observed in animals fed corn stover silage with molasses and urea (CDE treatments). Blood sugar and blood urea nitrogen were higher in animals fed corn hybrid and corn stover silage with 6% limesone, an indicator for availability of nutrients for growth. It was concluded that corn stover silage or with 6% molasses solution can replace the corn silage successfully in growth performance of Sahiewal calves. Key words; Sahiwal Calves, Corn Stover, Silage, Growth Performance, Digestibility, Blood Metabolites. IJSER ABBAS ABDUL HANNAN , NISAR AHMAD AND RANA MUHAMMAD BILAL Livestock Production Research Institute Bahadurnagar Okara, Ghazi University Dera Ghazi Khan, Islamia University Bahawalpur International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 9, Issue 5, May-2018 2270 ISSN 2229-5518 IJSER © 2018 http://www.ijser. org Introduction Fodder crops play pivotal role in the agricultural economy of developing countries by providing cheapest source of feed for livestock (Tauqir et al., 2007). Roughages include crops residues in the form of straws, stover and husk are the cheapest source of livestock feed in the country. The present forage production is not coping with the feeding requirements of livestock in Pakistan. Stresses for the exploitation of new feed resources and the interest for utilization of low quality crop residues as an animal feed has been increased. But due to trend of farming community toward cash crops and reduced cultivated area has driven the farming community towards silage making of fodders and non-conventional forages. Tauqir et al. (2007) reported that non-leguminous crops are extensively being used worldwide for silage making having relatively low buffering capacity and low concentrations of fermentable carbohydrates. But conventionally silage is being made from the sorghum, barley, millet, mott grass and Jambo grass. However, any forage which has sufficient fermentable carbohydrate may be ensiled, but the most popular crop is the maize (Bolsen et al., 1998, Woolford, 1984). Corn stover is vegetative portion consisting of leaves and stalks remained in the field after harvesting of corn. Most of the corn stover cannot be utilized by livestock due to abundant availability and low nutritional profile and hence huge quantity become dried in the field and is used as fuel purposes. It is almost half of the yield of a crop. When ears of plants are removed, they are ready to be harvested, otherwise lignin contents will increase and mostly nutrients will be leached out due to sun dry. A limited quantity of this forage is fed to animals and mostly is dried in the field and used as fuel purpose. Farmers are neither trained nor aware to adopt any alternative techniques to preserve biomass of corn stover. Maize stover is utilized for animal feeding during the scarcity of green fodder. During this period Corn stover can be as principle sources of fodder. Nutritional quality of maize stover is poor. It contains 38% cellulose , 26% hemicellulose and 19% lignin which make it acceptile feed for rumnants. After removing the ears of crop, dry matter increased rapidly and digestibility decreased and its ensiling becomes difficult there it is recommended to ensile it as early as possible in green state (Shreck et al.,