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An experiment was conducted to study the effect of different dietary protein levels on the performance, nutrient balances, blood biochemical parameters and thyroid hormones of crossbred calves. Thirty crossbred (Bos taurus×Bos indicus) calves aged 3-5 months were divided into 3 equal groups of 10 each and fed graded levels of crude protein, namely 100 (NP), 75 (LP) and 125 (HP) percent of the Kearl recommendations for 105 d. The calves had access to ad libitum oat hay as the basal roughage. A metabolism trial of 6 d duration was conducted at 90 d of the study. Blood collection and its analysis for various hematological and biochemical parameters as well as thyroid hormones was done both during the pre- and post-experimental periods. The fortnightly body weight changes and the net gain did not differ significantly due to dietary variation. The average daily gain was 367±21.6, 347±22.9 and 337±26.4 g in calves fed NP, LP and HP diets, respectively. Averaged across the feeding trial, oat hay intake was higher (p 0.05) on feeding of the LP diet besides showing an increasing trend with the advancement of age. Considering the similar performance and metabolic profile, it could be concluded that crossbred calves can be satisfactorily reared on 25% lower protein level as recommended by Kearl for developing countries, which would not only economize the cost of production but also help to reduce environmental pollution attributable to livestock production.

The effects of pre-partum feeding management in terms of birth weight, growth, metabolic profile and immunity of calves were studied using 24 crossbred (Bos taurus×Bos indicus) cows, divided into three equal groups. The dietary treatments included feeding of either 3.0 kg concentrate/head/d throughout the 60 d pre-partum (T1), or 3.0 kg concentrate during 60-22 d pre-partum and thereafter at an increased allowance at 0.25 kg/d during the next 21 d till it reached 1% of live weight (T2). The third group of cows was fed similar to T2, except that the concentrate feeding during 60-22 d pre-partum was reduced to 2.0 kg (T3). All the groups had access to ad libitum green fodder throughout. The results revealed that the mean daily dry matter (DM) intake by the cows was similar (p>0.05) among the three groups during the 60 days of the pre-partum but T2 animals tended to gain more live weight (41.25 kg) than T1 (38.12 kg) and T3 (36.25 kg). The body condition score of the cows did not change appreciably over the experimental period. The mean birth weight of the calves was 24.00±1.10, 24.63±1.17 and 23.25±1.19 kg for the three groups, respectively, with the corresponding average daily gain of 154.2, 155.0 and 169.7 g during the subsequent 60 days; both these parameters did not vary significantly ascribable to pre- partum feeding regimens of their dams. The total immunoglobulin (Ig) concentration in the colostrum was 6.31±0.34, 5.80±0.21 and 6.13±0.30 g/dl for the three groups, respectively, showing no influence of dietary treatments. The mean serum Ig levels (T1 2.10±0.09, T2 2.05±0.09 and T3 2.10±0.12 g/dl) of calves at 5 d of age were similar among the dietary groups as was the case with various serum biochemical constituents. It is concluded that the variations in pre-partum dietary management elicited no significant influence on the calf performance including the immune status. (Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 2005. Vol 18, No. 5 : 661-666)

Crossbred (Bos taurus×Bos indicus) calves were used from birth till 14 weeks of age to evaluate three sources of protein that differed in ruminal degradability viz. groundnut cake alone (HD) or in combination with cottonseed meal (MD) and meat and bone meal (LD), when fed along with two sources of non-structural carbohydrates viz. raw (R) and thermally processed (P) maize. Twenty four new born calves were arranged in six groups in a 3×2 factorial design and fed on whole milk up to 56 d of age. All the different calves received calf startes along with green oats (Avena sativa) from 14 d of age onwards free-choice. A metabolism trial of 6 d starters duration, conducted after 90 d of experimental feeding, revealed greater (p

Effects of feeding of 9.95 mg free gossypol/kg live weight through cottonseed meal (CSM) were studied in 20 intact male calves fed barley or sorghum as source of cereal during the experimental duration of 210 days. Serum concentration of total protein, albumin, globulin and their ratio did not vary because of protein (gossypol) or cereal sources. Serum level of cholesterol and urea were lower (p

This study was conducted to examine the effect of Leucaena leucocephala-Morus alba-Azadirachta indica (2:1:1) based leaf meal mixture as nitrogen source to partially replace (50%) soybean meal in conventional supplements on the performance of goats. Twelve non-descript female goats were divided into two equal groups in a completely randomized design to receive either the leaf meal mixture based supplement (LMAM) or soybean meal incorporated concentrate (SBM) and wheat straw for ad libitum intake for a two month period. The goats given LMAM and SBM concentrate had similar dry matter intake (50.2±1.67 g/kg W 0.75 ) and nutrient digestibility. Nitrogen intake and its faecal and urinary excretion were similar irrespective of diets. The balance of nitrogen was positive and comparable (1.63±0.08 g/d) in both dietary treatments. The plane of nutrition on both diets was comparable and the digestible crude protein and total digestible nutrients values of the composite diets offered did not differ significantly between the dietary supplements. The serum concentration of enzymes alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase were statistically similar in both the groups, while haemoglobin and serum urea levels were significantly (p

The study assessed the effect of dietary supplementation of leaf meal mixture (LMM) containing condensed tannins (CT) on feed intake, nutrient utilization and performance of sheep infected with Haemonchus contortus. Eighteen adult sheep of similar age and body weight (25.03±1.52) were included in this study and out of these, 12 sheep were infected with single dose of infective third stage larvae of H. contortus at 2,000 larvae per sheep. The experimental sheep were allocated in three different groups’ i.e. negative control (NC; no infection), control (C; H. contortus infected) and treatment (T; H. contortus infected+CT at 1.5% of the DM through LMM) and the experiment was conducted for a period of 90 d. The intake of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM) and digestibility of DM, OM, neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) were comparable among three animal groups. However, digestibility of crude protein (CP) and ether extract (EE) were significantly (p