Influence of Feeding Rice DDGS and Mixture of Wheat Straw and Groundnut Straw on Growth, Feed Intake and Thyroid Hormone Profile of Growing Crossbred Heifers
Authors: Pandey Manish , Shah S V , Patel D C , Pandya P R , Wadhwani K N , Sarvaiya N P 
Published: September 2021

Present experiment was carried out at Livestock Research Station, CVSc & AH, AAU, Anand, Gujarat (India) on twenty-four HF×Kankrej heifers with average body weight of 116.13 ± 4.74 kg and an average age of 281.92 ± 13.26 days to study the effect of feeding rice DDGS and mixture of wheat straw and groundnut straw on growth, feed intake and thyroid hormone profile of growing crossbred heifers. Three different concentrates containing 0, 20 and 40% rice DDGS (RDDGS) were offered to T1, T2 and T3 group heifers, respectively. RDDGS was given in place of soyaDOC in concentrate. Under each concentrate type, half of the heifers were offered wheat straw (R1 group) and another half a mixture of wheat straw and groundnut straw (R2 group) as dry roughage. The protein requirement of heifers was fulfilled as per ICAR (2013). Body weight was recorded at start and then at fortnightly, feed intake was calculated from the records of daily feed consumption and thyroid hormone profile was done in serum samples collected at start and then at 28 days interval throughout the experiment. Prior permission was taken from institutional animal ethics committee (IAEC, Project: 313/LPM/2019). The recorded data during the experiment was statistically analyzed by RBD factorial design. When roughage source was ignored, body weight of T3 group heifers was found significantly (p < 0.05) higher compared to T1 and T2 group heifers (182.32 ± 4.60 vs. 177.54 ± 4.63 & 178.99 ± 4.35).On avoiding concentrate source, body weight (kg) was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in R2 group heifers as compared to R1 heifers (181.98 ± 3.79 vs. 177.25 ± 3.59 kg). ADG of T3 group heifers (779.9 ± 23.2 g/head/d) was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than T2 and T1 group heifers (723.2 ± 22.4 vs. 703.9 ± 21.0), respectively. Ignoring concentrate source, ADG (g/head/d) of R2 group heifers was only numerically higher than that of (R1) heifers (751.1 ± 17.9 vs. 720.2 ± 18.6). Average DMI (kg/head/d) was found statistically similar between T1, T2 and T3 groups (4.70 ± 0.07, 4.65 ± 0.06 and 4.71 ± 0.06). The observed DMI (kg/100kg BW) in T1 group heifers that received 40% soyaDOC in concentrate was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than T2 and T3 group heifers (2.66 ± 0.04 vs. 2.59 ± 0.03 & 2.58 ± 0.03). There was non-significant difference in DMI (kg/kg BW gain) of crossbred heifers fed different concentrate. Ignoring concentrate source, the observed average DMI (kg/head/d) and DMI (kg /100kg BW) in R1 and R2 was (4.57 ± 0.05 & 4.81 ± 0.05) and (2.57 ± 0.03 & 2.65 ± 0.03), respectively. DMI (kg/head/d) and DMI (kg /100kg BW) increased significantly (p < 0.05) when a mixture of wheat straw and groundnut straw was fed to crossbred heifers. There was non-significant difference in DMI (kg/kg BW gain) between R1 and R2 group heifers (7.33 ± 0.39 & 7.05 ± 0.22). The average serum triiodothyronine (2.69 + 0.15, 2.81 + 0.16 & 2.94 + 0.13 ng/mL) and thyroxine hormone level (52.20 ± 2.47, 57.86 ± 4.09 & 52.30 ± 2.70) of T1, T2 and T3 group heifers remained statistically similar. When the concentrate source was ignored, serum triiodothyronine was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in R2 group heifers (2.60 ± 0.10 vs. 3.02 ± 0.13 ng/mL). The serum thyroxine concentration remained statistically similar on feeding different roughage (54.30 ± 2.16 & 53.94 ± 2.97 ng/mL). The results of the study indicate that RDDGS can replace soyaDOC fully in concentrate as a protein source and feeding mixture of groundnut straw and wheat straw is beneficial in terms of growth and do not affect normal body metabolism.