Milk Production Management & Dairy Development

Module 9. Feeding of dairy animals

Lesson 15
FEED RESOURCES AND FEEDING REQUIREMENTS OF DAIRY CATTLE

15.1 Introduction

Livestock improvement demands the efficient use of available feed resources. The provision of feeding stuffs of adequate nutritional quality is likely to be the most limiting factor in increasing livestock production in the developing countries. Factors like climate, agronomic practices, feed processing technologies and genetic variations ultimately affect the nutritive value of feed for livestock. Feeding resources and feeding systems of farm animals vary from one place to another. Feeding practices are governed by the farmer's land holdings, socio-economic status and marketing of livestock and their products.

Feed resources available in the country can be divided into two main categories as Conventional Feed Resources and Non-conventional Feed Resources. Conventional resources are grouped further into three categories: viz; (i) green roughages, (ii) dry roughages and (iii) concentrates

Dairy cattle have enormous potential to produce animal carbohydrate, protein and fat which requires high nutrient requirements through feeds. The use of adequate, well-balanced diets can maximize profits in a feeding program. An animal's diet must contain the essential nutrients in appropriate amounts and ratios. To maintain adequate performance at a minimal cost, least-cost diet formulations are required.

15.2 Classification of Feed Stuffs

Livestock feeds are primarily classified into three major categories as depicted in Fig. 15.1 viz., Pastures, harvested feeds and supplements & additives.

Fig. 15.1 Classification of feed stuffs

15.2.1 Pastures

Pastures form the 'oldest' form of livestock feed. The word 'pasture' refers to land on which different types of edible grasses and other plants grow or are grazing livestock. Permanent pastures are those covered with perennial or self seeding annual species of plants. Temporary pastures are those planted with quick growing crops like Sudan grass and millet to provide supplemental grazing during lean seasons.

The main objective in grassland management is to provide maxi­mum feed nutrients to the livestock from the pasture without any detriment to the health and productivity of the pasture. Association with proper grazing management can improve pastures considera­bly. Many systems of grazing have been evolved to ensure optimum productivity of pastures. They include:

a) Controlled continuous grazing,

b) Deferred grazing,

c) Rotational grazing,

d) Hohenheim system, and

e) Deferred rotational grazing

15.2.2 Harvested feeds

Harvested feeds are classified as roughages, concentrates and unconventional feeds and ofdders

15.2.2.1 Roughages

Feeds with a higher proportion of crude fibre or non digestible materials are grouped together under the general term, roughages. They are bulky and usually contain more than 18% crude fibre. Roughages may be further classified into succulent and dry depend­ing on the moisture content. Succulent roughages are further classified into green fodder and silage. Green fodder includes leguminous fodder and non leguminous fodder.

• Leguminous Roughages: Leguminous fodder consists of the stem and leaves of a group of plants belonging to the family Leguminaceae. Important leguminous fodder crops include true clovers (Trifolium species), Medics (Medicago species), Crotalaria species and certain other miscellaneous legumes. Eg: Berseem (Trifolium alexandrium) among medics, Lucerne (Medicago sativa) is the most popular fodder crop. Crotalaria group includes a large number of species useful for foraging like Sun hemp (Crotalaria junia), Cow pea (Vigna sinensis) and Kudzu vine (Pueraris thunbergiana) Certain other legumes like soybeans (Glycene Soya) are also important in livestock feeding.

• Non-leguminous Roughages: Non-leguminous fodder generally contains lower percentage of nitrogen. Therefore, when livestock get non-leguminous fodder, special care has to be taken to add sufficient protein-rich concen­trates to balance the ration. They include many cereal fodder crops, perennial cultivated grasses, some indigenous grasses and intro­duced grasses. Important members of cereal Crops used as fodder are Maize (Zea mays), Sorghum (Sorghum vulgare), Bajra (Pennisetum typhoides), Oats (Avena sativa) and Teosinte (Euchlaena mexicana). Among the perennial cultivated fodder grasses Para grass (Brachiaria mutica), Guinea grass (Pancium maximum), Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum), Hybrid Napier (an interspecies cross between Napier and Bajra), Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana) Blue panic grass(Panicum antidotable) and Sudan grass (Sorghum vulgare var. sudanese) are the important members. Some of the important indigenous grasses are Anjan grass (Kolukattain grass, Cenchruscialiaris), Dhub grass (Hariali, Cynodon dactylon), Giant star grass (Cynodon plectostachyus), Marval grass (Dichanthium annulatum), Sewan grass (Elyonurus hirsatus) and Masel grass (Iseilema laxum).

• Many other grasses like Deenabandhu grass (Pennisetum pedicellatum), Orchard grass (Dactylus glomerata), Signal grass (Brachiaria brizantha) introduced to India from Africa, USA, Australia, UK and other countries.

15.2.2.2 Concentrates

Concentrates are high in energy and/or protein, low in fiber, and highly digestible. They are the expensive part of the animal feed and are used mostly in small quantities as supplements. These feeds include cereals, oil seeds and meals, cereals brans and polishings, molasses and sugar beet pulp. Two local types of concentrates are common.

• Energy-rich (carbonaceous) or basal concentrates including cereal grains (wheat, maize, barley, oats, sorghum, rice), wheat bran, rice polishing, molasses (sugar cane and sugar beet molasses), sugar beet pulp.
• Protein-rich (proteinaceous) sources from plant origin include oilseed cakes (cottonseed, mustard seed, maize oil, sunflower, toria, sesame, oil seed meals (cottonseed, soybean, guar, maize gluten), maize gluten feed, maize gluten meal and from animal origin are blood meal, fish meal, meat meal and feather meal.

Basal concentrates are rich in carbohydrates and usually have a low protein percentage. Thus, they can be used in the ration of livestock mainly as a source of the energy. This does not mean that they do not supply any protein. Often, the protein present in grains is highly digestible. But the proportion of protein present is low. Use of wheat as a livestock feed has been limited only.

Protein-rich concentrates have a greater proportion of protein as a constituent. They may be of plant or animal origin. Protein-rich concentrates of plant origin are products or by-products derived from plants. Pulses and grams like cow-pea, black gram, horse gram and Bengal gram form an important group of protein-rich concen­trates of plant origin. The important animal proteins in livestock feeding are by-products like tankage, fish meal, meat meal, dried skim milk and dried butter milk.

15.2.2.3 Non-conventional feeds and fodders

Non-conventional feed refers to those feeds which are not traditionally used in animal feeding but have the potential to be used as feed. There are many agro-industrial by-products and wastes available in the province, which have not yet found their way in animal feeding, such as by-products of the sugar industry, and cereal industry (straw and pods of soybean, chickpea, peanut, mustard and sunflower heads).. In addition to the above, other crop by-products not currently used by farmers as feed have the potential for incorporation in the diet of ruminants. However, for effective utilization these fibrous feeds need various physical or chemical or biological treatments. Some such feeds are discussed below.

Tree leaves as fodder considering the widespread shortages of nutritious conventional feeds. In general, the tree leaves were found to be a rich source of protein. Eg:papal

Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) can be fed as hay along with ground nut cake­ and paddy straw without any sign of diuresis or diarrhea. Silage also is prepared of water hyacinth with paddy straw in 4: 1 pro­portion using 2 % common salt.

Agricultural by-products can be fed as unconventional roughage resources. The left overs, after the removal of oil seeds and pulses, are generally considered a waste. Attempts have been made to utilize these left over by feeding to ruminants.

15.3 Feeding Standards

Feeding standards are tables stating the amount of various nutrients that should be present in the daily ration of different classes of livestock for optimum results in growth, work and production.

15.3.1 Requirement for maintenance (Modified Morrison’s standard)

Basal metabolism forms the major component of maintenance requirement. It is usually determined by calorimetric methods. The 'basal' conditions necessary for such estimations include

• having received prior good nutrition.
• having been adapted to a zone of thermo neutrality.
• post absorptive state;
• Minimum emotional stress and minimum muscular activity.

Table 15.1 Nutrients required for maintenance requirement of dairy animals

Body weight(kg)	DCP (kg)	Energy		Ca (g)	P (g)	Vit-A (IU)
		TDN (kg)	ME (K.cal)
250	0.168	2.02	7.27	6	6	27
300	0.197	2.36	8.50	7	7	32
350	0.217	2.70	9.72	8	8	37
400	0.255	3.03	10.91	9	9	42
450	0.282	3.37	12.13	10	10	47
500	0.296	3.64	13.28	11	11	52
550	0.336	4.00	14.40	12	12	57

15.3.2 Requirement for growth

Similar to maintenance requirements the growth requirements for animals can be estimated by factorial calculations or by actual feeding trials. Usually, the requirements for growth and fattening are added to that of maintenance so that when animals are fed as per standards for growth, there is no need of adding' maintenance requirements to that.

Table 15.2 Nutrients required for a calf growing at the rate of 0.5kg per day during first two years and reaching adult body weight at the age of approximately 3 years.

Body weight(kg)	DCP(kg)	Energy		Ca (g)	P (g)	Vit-A (IU)
		TDN (kg)	ME (K.cal)
45	0.17	0.9	3290	7	6	2000
70	0.22	1.3	4680	12	10	3000
100	0.28	1.9	6900	13	10	4000
150	0.35	2.6	9360	13	12	6500
200	0.40	3.0	11500	13	12	8500
300	0.47	4.0	12600	13	12	12500
450	0.48	5.0	13600	12	12	17000

15.3.3. Requirement for lactation

Lactation involves synthesis of milk constituents, mobilization from body tissues and transport of nutrients absorbed from the gut to the mammary gland. In the case of dairy cows, buffaloes and dairy goats, nutrient requirements for lactation are given separately on a per kg milk yield basis. The requirements of an animal depend on the, daily milk yield, proportion of nutrients in the milk and the efficiency with which these nutrients are utilized for milk production.

Energy, protein and ash content of milk have relationships to the fat-percentage. Therefore the energy, protein, calcium and phos­phorus requirements have been related to the fat content of milk. The TDN requirement per kg milk varies from 0.26 kg TDN/kg of 2.5% fat milk to 0.41 kg TDN/kg of 6% fat milk. On the basis of energy balance studies, the NE ranges from 0.59 Mcal/kg 2.5% fat milk to 0.93 Mcal per kg of 6% fat milk.

The total protein requirement for lactation has been calculated factorially which ranges from 72 g/kg of 2.5% fat milk to 108 g/kg of 6% fat milk. The Ca and P requirements for lactation have also been estimated factorially. Assuming an availability of 45%, 2.7 g of Ca kg milk has been fixed. Requirements of other minerals like P, Na, K, Mg, S etc., were also fixed in a similar manner.

Table 15.3 Nutrients Required For Production per Kg of Milk to Be Added to the Maintenance Allowance (SEN and RAY, 1964; ICAR Bulletin, No.25)

Fat per cent in Milk	DCP (kg)	Energy		Ca (g)	P (g)
		TDN (kg)	ME(m.cal)
3.0	0.040	0.269	0.97	2	1.4
4.0	0.045	0.316	1.15	2	1.4
5.0	0.051	0.363	1.28	2	1.4
6.0	0.057	0.411	1.41	2	1.4
7.0	0.063	0.458	1.54	2	1.4
8.0	0.069	0.506	1.8	2	1.4
9.0	0.075	0.553	2.06	2	1.4
10.0	0.081	0.602	2.16	2	1.4
11.0	0.085	0.650	2.34	2	1.4

Table 15.4 Nutrients Required For maintenance and Pregnancy for dairy animals from 5^th month of gestation

Body weight(kg)	DCP (kg)	Energy		Ca (g)	P (g)	Vit-A (1000IU)
		TDN (kg)	ME(K.cal)
250	0.270	3.0	10.8	14	12	21
300	0.290	3.4	12.4	16	14	25
350	0.320	3.7	13.2	21	16	27
400	0.350	4.0	14.1	23	18	30
450	0.400	4.4	15.9	26	20	34
500	0.430	4.8	17.3	29	22	38
550	0.465	5.2	18.8	31	24	42
600	0.500	5.6	20.2	34	26	46
650	0.530	6.0	21.6	36	28	50
700	0.550	6.3	22.7	39	30	53
750	0.600	6.7	24.2	42	32	57
800	0.630	7.1	25.6	44	34	61

Table 15.5 Nutrient requirements for breeding bulls in service:

Body weight(kg)	DCP (kg)	Energy		Ca (g)	P (g)	Vit-A (IU)
		TDN (kg)	ME(M.cal)
500	0.43	4.5	16.2	12	12	21200
600	0.48	5.1	18.2	14	14	25400
700	0.54	5.7	20.5	15	15	29600
800	0.60	6.3	22.5	18	18	33800

Table15.6 Nutrient requirements for work bullocks:

Body weight(kg)	Normal work				Heavy work
	DCP(kg)	TDN (kg)	ME(M.cal)		(DCP(kg)	TDN (kg)	ME(M.cal)
300	0.33	3.1		11.2	0.42	4.0	14.4
400	0.45	4.0		14.4	0.52	4.8	17.2
500	0.56	4.9		17.6	0.71	6.4	23.1

15.4. Feeding Cattle and Buffaloes by Thumb Rule Method

The following thumb rules may guide the farmers to feed their animals satisfactorily with particular reference to cases where individual attention and computation on body weight basis seem to be rather impractical.

15.4.1. Maintenance ration

This is the minimum amount of feed required to maintain the essential body processes at their optimum rate without gain or loss in body weight or change in body composition. The amount of concentrate and paddy straw that will provide optimum maintenance requirement for an adult dairy cattle without any computation whatsoever are as follows:

Table 15.7 Maintenance ration for Dairy cattle

S.No	Item	For zebu cattle	For cross bred/ pure breed Indian cows/ buffaloes
1	Straw	4kg	4-6kg
2	Concentrate mixture(with straw only or with little greens)	1-1.25kg	2.00kg

The composition of Concentrate mixture is:

Oil cakes: 25-35 parts.
Millets/ cereals: 25-35 parts.
Cereal by-products:10-25 parts.
Pulse chuni: 5-20 parts.

To be fortified with mineral mixture:1 part and salt:1-2 parts and 20-30 gm vit-AD3/100kg.,containing 50,000I.U vit-A and 5,000IU vit-D3 per gram. This concentrate mixture will provide 14-16 % DCP and 68%TDN.

15.4.2. Gestation ration in the case of pregnancy further allowance of DCP and TDN should be made from 5th month of gestation onwards for proper growth of the foetus and to keep the mother fit for optimum milk production on calving. For this in addition to maintenance ration.a further amount of 1.25kg and 1.75kg of concentrate mixture is recommended for zebu and cross bred cow / buffaloes respectively. For high yielders liberal feeding of pregnant dams particularly cross bred cows / buffaloes from 8th month of pregnancy or 6 weeks before parturition with the object of securing full development of mammary glands for optimum milk production. For this 2.0kg to 3.0kg of concentrate for zebu and between 4.0-5.0 kg for crossbred/ pure bred Indian cattle/ buffaloes over and above maintenance requirements are recommended.

15.4.3. Production ration: Production ration is the additional allowance of ration for milk production over and above the maintenance requirement. For zebu 1kg additional amount of concentrate is required for every 2.5kg of milk over and above the maintenance requirement while the same amount of concentrate is required for every 2.0kg of milk for crossbred / Indian milch breed/buffaloes.