PROTEIN REQUIREMENT FOR MAINTENANCE OF CROSSBRED COWS

Six adult healthy dry crossbred cows (365 +/- 12.74 kg) were used to d etermine crude protein (CP) and digestible crude protein (DCP) require ment for maintenance. They were fed adlib. a mixture of wheat straw an d molasses (50:50) along with deoiled groundnut-cake (DGNC) to supply about 0,50 and 100% protein requirement for maintenance in experiments 1, 2 and 3 respectively. In each experiment a metabolism trial of 6 d ays collection was conducted after 4 weeks of preliminary feeding. Vol untary feed, intake increased significantly on DGNC feeding and mean D M intake/100 kg body weight was 1.59 +/- 0.09, 1.82 +/- 0.10 and 2.05 +/- 0.08 kg in experiments 1,2 and 3 respectively. Digestibilities of CP and EE significantly increased on DGNC feeding. Cows in experiment 1 were on negative N balance but improved with DGNC feeding. Two predi ction equations evolved from regression were: (i) Y = -19.904 - 0.3663 X1 + 0.8977 X2 and (ii) Y = -5.52 - 0.0422 X1 + 0.643 X3 where Y, X1 , X2 and X3 were N balance, metabolic body weight. N intake and digest ible N intake respectively. Predicted value of CP requirement for main tenance 4.21 g/kg W0.75 was similar to various recommendations but DCP requirement 1.054 g/kg W0.75 was much less than the standard recommen dations.