144
Bagomolasses as Cattle Feed
requirement. Since bagomolasses was an energy-
giving food it was thought that the incorporation
of this item even in a modified village ration
would produce a beneficial result.
Food consumption. The total dry matter con-
sumption by the animals in the two groups is
shown in Table III.
TABLE III
Total dry matter consumption per animal per day
in gm.
Animal No.
1 . . . . .
2 . . . . .
3 . . . . .
Average .
From village
ration enriched
by a supple-
ment
4,605
5,197
4,979
4,927
From village
ration enriched
by a supple-
ment + bago-
molasses
6,195
5,603
5,780
5,859
The data show that the consumption of the
ration was higher (about 19 per cent) when bago-
molasses was included and this higher consump-
tion was found statistically significant.
Live weight. The live weights of the control
and experimental groups showed that it was
practically the same under the two feeding con-
ditions.
Nitrogen balance. The results of the nitrogen
balance are given in Table IV.
TABLE IV
Effect of bagomolasses on the nitrogen metabolism
of working bullocks
Experiment II
Enriched village
ration
Average .
Enriched village
ration + bagomo-
lasses
Average
Animal
No.
1
2
3
..
1
2
3
..
Nitrogen
intake
(gm.)
94.81
98.76
97.31
97.0
101.01
97.07
98.25
98.8
Nitrogen
excretion
In faces
(gm.)
32.88
34.09
40.07
35.7
35.56
32.67
29.14
32.5
In urine
(gm.)
51.57
47.87
46.47
48.6
47.17
47.57
42.67
45.8
Balance
(gm.)
+10.36
+ 10.80
+10.77
+12.0
+ 18.28
+ 16.83
+26.44
+20.5
It will be seen that the animals receiving the
control ration showed a fairly marked positive
balance of nitrogen. Apparently, the poor village
ration could be improved by the introduction
of wheat bran. It has already been mentioned
that even after the enrichment of the poor viallge
ration, the energy supply was 25 per cent below
the normal requirement. This apparent defi-
ciency was compensated by the higher quota of
digestible protein supplied in the modified ration.
This extra protein perhaps met the energy re-
quirement for work. When bagomolasses was
added to the modified village ration there was no
apparent beneficial effect. The average reten-
tion of nitrogen however increased from 12.6 gm.
(on modified village ration) to 20.5 gm. (on modi-
fied village ration + bagomolasses). In this
case also the higher retention was due to the
combined results of better digestion and utiliza-
tion.
III. The effect of replacement of gram husk by
bagomolasses in an adequate ration for working
bullocks
It has been mentioned in part I of this series
[Ray and Talapatra, 1945] that bagomolasses
is comparable to gram husk in nutritive value.
In the present investigation, an experiment was
planned to study the effect of replacement of an
equivalent amount of gram husk in a theoretically
adequate ration for working bullocks.
The rations for the control experimental groups
of animals are as follows:
Gram husk . . .
Wheat bran . . .
Maize
.
.
.
.
Rape cake .
.
.
.
Ardawa
.
.
.
.
Bagomolasses . . .
Wheat-bhusa . . .
Common salt . . .
Control
group
4.5 lb.
3.0 lb.
2.0 lb.
2.0 lb.
2.0 lb.
Nil
Ad lib.
2 oz.
Experimental
group
Nil
3.0 lb.
2.0 lb.
2.0 lb.
2.0 lb.
4.5 lb.
Ad lib.
2 oz.
Food consumption. The total dry matter con-
sumption by the two groups of animals is shown
in Table V.