GREEN BERSEEM AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR CONCENTRATES FOR
ECONOMIC FEEDING OF DAIRY CATTLE
By. N. C. DAS GUPTA, Research Officer, Cattle Feeding Research Scheme, Jhansi United Provinces
(Received for publication on 1 November 1941)
BERSEEM (Trifolium alexandrinum), a native
of Egypt, was first introduced in India in 1904
and since 1910 it has occupied an important place
in crop rotation in the Government Cattle Farms
and in certain localities its cultivation has been
taken up even by the cultivators. With a view
to making a scientific study of berseem as a fodder
crop, feeding trials to find out its nutritive value
and the economy of the replacement of expensive
concentrates with home grown berseem were taken
up by the Cattle Feeding Research Scheme of the
United Provinces, financed by the Imperial Council
of Agricultural Research.
Berseem is quite rich in protein and contains, on
an average, about 18 per cent on dry basis. Prescot
[1920] while conducting some trials with sheep has
found that the digestibility of the protein of ber-
seem is about 75 per cent. Lander and Dharmani
[1936] working with Montgomery heifers have re-
corded the digestibility of berseem protein as high
as 82 per cent and they are of opinion that it is a
maintenance ration and is decidedly a better fod-
der than green senji (Melilotus parviflora). Sayer
[1934] has also found berseem to be an excellent
fodder for milch cows.
To find out the food value of this important
fodder crop by long period feeding tests and to
ascertain the possibility of berseem replacing the
concentrates for economic feeding of cattle, ex-
periments were conducted during the berseem
seasons of 1938-39 and 1939-40 with Hissar cows
and Murrah buffaloes for growth and milk yield.
PART I. EFFECT OF REPLACEMENT OF A MIX-
TURE OF CONCENTRATES BY GREEN BERSEEM ON
GROWTH
Three well matched groups, each comprising of
two Hissar heifers and two young Murrah buffaloes
were selected in January 1939, for this test and
distributed into different groups (Table I).
Same roughage was fed to all the animals, each
getting 11 lb. of jowar silage and wheat straw ad
lib. During the preliminary feeding period all the
animals received concentrate mixture for their
protein requirement. The mixture contained 50
parts linseed cake, 20 parts wheat bran and 30
parts barley. To 100 parts of this concentrate
mixture, 2 parts of mineral mixture were added.
For experimental feeding, group I was supplied
with concentrate mixture. For group II, 50
per cent of the concentrate mixture was replaced
by berseem on the basis of protein, and similarly
75 per cent of the protein equivalent of concen-
trate mixture was replaced by berseem for group
III. These three feeding treatments have been
denoted as T 1 , T 2 and T 3 respectively while dis-
cussing the results. The experiment was con-
tinued for 17 weeks. The amount of protein
supplement was adjusted from time to time accord-
ing to changes in the liveweight and the animals
were not allowed to leave any residue from either
silage, berseem or concentrates given to them.
Daily records of liveweight and consumption of
feeds were maintained. The weekly average live-
weights during the experimental period have been
recorded in Table I.
TABLE I
Distribution of animals into groups and their average liveweight in lb. (Experiment I)
Breed .
.
.
.
Age on 31st Jan. 1939
(Yr—m—d)
Average age of group .
Basal liveweight . .
Average liveweight of
group, during basal
period
Group I
Concentrate mixture alone
1H
2-1-12
2 H
2-1-11
3M
1-0-29
4 M
1-7-19
1 year 10 months 10 days
622
379
476
498
464
Group II
50 per cent of concentrate protein
replaced by berseem
5 H
2-1-27
6H
2-1-23
7M
1-7-1
8M
1-7-11
1 year 10 months 15 days
504
442
433
512
473
Group III
75 per cent of concentrate protein
replaced by berseem
9 H
2-1-0
10 H
2-1-4
11 M
1-7-15
12 M
1-7-4
1 year 10 months 7 days
479
452
455
538
481
196