Milk Yield Response of Bypass Protein on Smallholder Dairy Animals

Protein need for small holder dairy animals is very limited. Considering this problem one on-station and one on-farm trails were conducted in 2013 and 2014 in Nepal respectively. In on-station trial (2013) 15 milking buffaloes were randomly assigned to 5 dietary treatments (0, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 kg de-oiled soybean meals/day/buffalo) and in on-farm trial (2014), 20 milking buffaloes were assigned to 0.5 kg de-oiled soybean meal/day/buffalo for two months dry period. From on-station trial, significantly higher (42 %) milk production was observed from 0.5 kg and 1 kg de-oiled soybean meal/day/buffalo feeding groups. From the on-farm trials in village dairy buffaloes 20 percent milk production increment was observed compared with the normal farmer's feeding practices (de-oiled soybean meals unfed condition). It was concluded that, in addition to normal diet, 0.5 to 1 kg de-oiled soybean meal (depending up on the body weight of animal and feeding situation) per day feeding as bypass protein sources could be beneficial during dry period where green fodder is scarce to maintain milk production from dairy animals

Digestibility of Ficus roxburghii, Castanopsis indica and Ficus cunia on growing buffalo from Western Hills of Nepal

Nine buffalo calves were subjected to three fodder tree species namely; Ficus roxburghii (Nimaro), Castanopsis indica (Dhalne Katus) and Ficus cunia (Rai Khanyu) for digestibility trial during November 27 to December 3, 2005 in Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Lumle, Kaski Nepal. Animals were kept 7 days for adaptation for these fodders. Weighed amount of fodder tree leaves including twigs and small branches were fed two times a day and observation on fodder offered, refused and faeces voided were recorded daily. Chemical composition of fresh matter and faeces voided were carried out for dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), lignin, calcium (Ca) and phosphorous (P). The mean DM content and their dry matter digestibility (DMD) of these three fodder tree species were found 27.86, 46.02, 34.72, 73.21, 65.93 and 71.28 percent respectively. There were strong negative correlations (r=-0.75 to -0.78; p<0.05) observed between Ca. and CP with fiber fraction (NDF and ADF). The weak correlation was also observed between P and other constituents with respect to digestibility. From the results, if there could be provision of low fiber content in dry season, the three main nutrients (Ca, P and CP) may easily be absorbed by the animals