282
Berseem hay for Dairy Cattle
the corresponding difference in the increase of
liveweight is 28 and 54 lb. (Table I). This varia-
tion in the liveweight cannot be accounted for
by the slight lower intake of wheat straw which is
of poor nutritive value.
It is of interest to note from Table III that
the dry matter consumption of Murrah heifers
per 100 lb. of liveweight is lower than that of
Hissar. Similar observations have been made by
Das Gupta [1943] while conducting feeding trials.
Digestibility of the ration of the different groups
A digestion experiment, for a period of 10 days
with two Hissar and two Murrah heifers from each
group, was conducted towards the end of the
experiment to find out the difference in the digesti-
bility of the nutrients of the total ration due to
the replacement of concentrates by berseem hay.
The figures are shown in Table IV.
TABLE IV
Average digestion coefficient of the nutrients of the different groups
Particulars
Hissar
Full concentrate
.
.
.
.
.
50 per cent conc. 50 per cent berseem . .
25 per cent conc. 75 per cent berseem . .
Murrah
Full concentrate
.
.
.
.
.
50 per cent conc. 50 per cent berseem . .
25 per cent cone. 75 per cent berseem . .
Organic
matter
63.3
62.5
61.1
65.4
65.1
63.7
Crude
protein
66.1
61.0
57.9
67.6
62.6
60.2
Fat
76.7
65.7
57.7
77.7
70.5
60.3
Fibre
51.6
57.4
58.5
53.1
57.1
57.7
N. F. E.
71.5
64.9
63.0
68.5
68.6
67.5
T. C.
62.5
62.4
61.4
64.3
65.0
64.1
There is no difference in the digestibility of the
total carbohydrates due to the different rations.
The digestibility of protein has decreased with an
increase in the quantity of berseem hay in the
ration indicating that berseem hay protein is less
digested than that of the concentrate mixture.
Fat has also been less digested by the berseem
groups but this seems to be mainly due to the lower
amount of fat present in the total feed. Though
the calculated level of protein supplied to each
group was the same, the intake of digestible pro-
tein decreased with the replacement of concentrate
due to the lower digestibility of berseem hay
protein. It appears that the rate of growth in
the case of berseem hay groups was influenced
by the lower intake of digestible protein.
Berseem hay for Hissar and Murrah breeds
The percentage composition of the different
feeds and the gain per pound of digestible protein
and starch equivalent of the three rations have
been compared in Tables V and VI to study the
effect of the quality of nutrients on the live-
weight increase of the two breeds. The digesti-
bility figures obtained from the digestion experi-
ment have been used to calculate the different
nutrients digested during the total period of
experiment.
TABLE V
Percentage composition on a dry basis
Wheat straw
.
.
.
.
.
.
Green jowar
.
.
.
.
.
.
Berseem—
1st 4 weeks
.
.
.
.
.
2nd 4 weeks
.
.
.
.
.
3rd 4 weeks
.
.
.
.
.
Last 5 weeks
.
.
.
.
.
Linseed cake
.
.
.
.
.
.
Barley
.
.
.
.
Bran
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Organic
matter
88.80
90.51
86.44
84.41
85.68
86.77
91.72
95.50
93.95
Crude
protein
2.25
4.88
15.91
15.48
15.65
14.74
32.58
9.82
13.40
Ether
extract
0.982
1.531
1.788
1.740
1.700
1.650
8.007
1.980
3.942
Fibre
34.08
30.39
24.02
25.10
20.00
27.04
7.63
4.06
9.36
N. F. E.
51.49
53.71
44.72
41.09
42.33
43.34
43.50
79.65
67.24
T. C.
85.57
84.09
68.94
66.19
68.33
70.38
51.13
83.71
76.60