ANN 121: Applied Animal Nutrition-I (2+1)

Balanced ration and its characteristics

Ration

• A ration is the feed allowed for a given animal during a day of 24 hours.
• The feed may be given at a time or in portions at intervals.

Balanced ration

• A balanced ration is a ration, which provides the essential nutrients to the animal in such proportion and amounts that are required for the proper nourishment of the particular animal for 24 hours for various physiological functions.

Desirable characterisitcs of a ration

Liberal feeding

• The animal should be provided in plenty with all the requirements, which are necessary for full milk production and maintenance of her body.
• There should also be some allowance made for what goes as a waste in preparation and serving the feed to the cow.
• It should not be mistaken for overfeeding.
• It is doubly wasteful because it wastes feed and it also injures the animal’s system.

Individual feeding

• In order to obtain maximum profits, cows must be fed individually according to the  production and requirements instead of allowing the same ration to each animal in the herd.

 

The ration should be properly balanced

• With a correct and balanced ration a cow can get the best out of all the constituents present in her feed resulting in production of milk at cheaper cost.
• In improperly balanced ration, much of the feed is wasted. What is eaten by the cow is not important but what she digests is important.
• Because the feed digested alone goes for milk production and maintenance of the body. A balanced ration is thus more purposeful and beneficial.

The ration must be palatable

• Whatever feed given to an animal must be to its liking.
• Evil smelling, mouldy, musty, spoiled and inferior feeds are unpalatable and must not be given to the animals.
• If some excellent feed is not good in taste, they should be improved by special preparations like addition of salt or other feed additives.

Variety of feed in the ration

• By combining many feeds in a ration, a better and balanced mixture of proteins, vitamins and other nutrients are furnished than by depending on only a few.
• Variety of feeds in the ration makes it more palatable.

The ration should contain enough of mineral matter

• Every litre of milk yielded by a cow contains a little more than 0.7% of mineral matter.
• If the amount of mineral matter in the ration is not sufficient to meet the demand in the milk yield, the cow shall have to draw upon her own body supplies or fall down in milk yield.
• At the end of her lactation, the cow will be left as an extremely weak animal and her milk yield in subsequent lactation will go down considerably.

The ration should be fairly laxative

• Constipation is often the cause of most of the digestive troubles.
• It is, therefore, necessary to give such feeds, which are laxative in character.

The ration should be fairly bulky

• The stomach of cattle is very capacious and they do not feel satisfied unless their bellies are properly filled up.
• From the point of providing energy and heat generated values, indigestible fibre is not of any great importance but it plays an important role in giving a feeling of fullness to cattle.
• If the bulk of the ration supplied is small, however rich it might be in its nourishing constituents, cattle may fall a victim to the depraved habits of eating earth, rags, dirty refuses, etc., for filling up stomachs.

The ration should contain sufficient green fodder

•  Green succulent fodders are of great importance in feeding of milch animals because of their cooling and slightly laxative action.
• They aid in the appetite and keep the animal in good condition.
• Green fodders are bulky, easily digestible, laxative and contain enough of necessary vitamins.
• Leguminous green fodders are very rich in proteins.

 

Avoid sudden changes in the ration

• Sudden changes are often the cause of many digestive troubles, the more notable being “Tympanitis”, Impaction”, etc.
• All changes of the feed must be gradual and slow.
• An animal system receiving a certain feed or a mixture of feeds gets accustomed to it. It gets upset by sudden changes.

Maintain regularity in feeding

• Cattle like other animals are creatures of habits and get so much used to routine that marked changes may lead to restlessness.
• As the feeding hour approaches, their glandular secretions become active in anticipation of the meal.
• Irregularity in milking and feeding tells very badly on the productive powers of an animal.
• The time of feeding should be evenly distributed so that the animals are not kept too long without feed.

The feed must be properly prepared

• The feed must be well prepared. Some feeds require special preparations before administration in order to render them more digestible and palatable.
• Hard grains like gram, barley, wheat, maize, etc., should be ground before feeding so that their mastication may become easy.
• Coarse fodders like dry jowar, bajra and green fodders of these crops should be chaffed before feeding.
• Some dry fodders, such as bhusa of cereals and legumes should be moistened.
• Soaking of feeds like various types of cakes and cottonseed soften them and makes them more palatable.

A ration should not be too bulky

• If the ration is too bulky, the animal will fail to get all its nutrient requirements.

Economy in labour and cost

• The ultimate object of rearing animals is to make profits.
• The cost of the feeds and the labour in feeding should be minimised to an extent that economic efficiency is not affected.