NUTRIENT UTILIZATION AND GROWTH-PERFORMANCE OF CROSSBRED HEIFERS FED ON FODDER-BASED COMPLETE DIET

A complete diet (mast) was formulated using locally available crop res idue (sorghum straw) and leguminous forage (sunhemp hay) as roughage s ource and processed into mash. This complete diet was compared with a conventional diet consisting of concentrate mixture and chopped sorghu m straw fed separately in 180-day growth-cum-digestion experiments (on ce at the middle and the other at the end of the experiments) by feedi ng to 12 crossbred heifers (6 in each group). Growth performance, feed efficiency and nutrient utilization of these rations were assessed. V oluntary intake of dry matter (P<0.05) and water (P<0.01) was higher w ith complete diet than with the conventional diet. There was no signif icant difference in the digestibilities of all nutrients between the t wo di ets irrespective of the stages of growth. However, the nitrogen- free extract digestibility was significantly (P<0.05) higher at stage 2. Though the digestible crude protein and total digestible nutrient ( TDN) contents were lower than the recommended levels in both the exper imental diets, ail the experimental animals could meet the TDN require ments by way of increased dry-matter intake. The average daily gain wa s significantly higer on complete diet (P<0.05) and in stage 1 (P<0.01 ). The DM intake/kg live weight gain and cost of feed/kg live weight g ain were significantly (P<0.01) higher in stage 2. The cost of feed/kg live weight gain was 15% lower on complete diet than the conventional diet suggesting that low grade roughages can be better utilized by in corporating in complete diet where presence of leguminous hay reduced the feeding cost.