Performance of lactating crossbred cows fed on forage based total mixed ration

A study was conducted to evaluate the forage based total mixed ration (TMR) in crossbred lactating cows on milk production and nutrient digestibility. TMR was prepared by mixing wheat straw, chapped green forages (sorghum and rice bean in experiment I and oat and berseem in experiment II) and concentrate feed having 17 percent dietary CP. Two feeding experiments for the period of 60 days duration each during rainy (experiment I) and winter seasons (experiment II) were conducted in first lactating crossbred cows. In both the experiment six first lactating cows were taken and divided into 2 groups. Group 1 (T1)was fed TMR and in Group 2 (T2) ingredients were fed separately. The total daily dry matter intake (DMI) in cows fed TMR increased significantly (p˂0.01) by 15.92 percent in experiment I, when multi cut sorghum and rice bean used as green fodder. However, the differences were negligible in experiment II,when oat and berseem used as green fodder. The dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) digestibility as well as digestible energy (DE) value of ration were increased significantly (p˂0.01) in cows fed on TMR based on berseem and oat as green fodder in experiment II. However, differences were non-significant in experiment I, when multi cut sorghum and rice bean used as green fodder in TMR. The overall increase in milk production was recorded by 16.96 and 19.49 percent in cows fed TMR during experiment I and II, respectively. Similarly, an increase in milk production in cows fed different feeds separately was also recorded 10.74 and 6.41 percent,respectively during experiment I and II. Thus, it i s concluded that feeding of TMR is beneficial for proportionate intake of all feed ingredients, overall feed intake and better digestibility of nutrients resulting into higher milk production. This record was migrated from the OpenDepot repository service in June, 2017 before shutting down