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Evaluation of total mixed ration silage with brewers grains for dairy buffalo in T arai, N epal
Author(s) -
Sakai Takashi,
Devkota Naba R.,
Oishi Kazato,
Hirooka Hiroyuki,
Kumagai Hajime
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
animal science journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.606
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1740-0929
pISSN - 1344-3941
DOI - 10.1111/asj.12374
Subject(s) - silage , dry matter , neutral detergent fiber , total mixed ration , latin square , lactation , straw , zoology , chemistry , food science , biology , rumen , fermentation , ice calving , pregnancy , genetics , inorganic chemistry
To investigate the effects of total mixed ration ( TMR ) silage, which contained brewers grain and rice straw as a substitute for conventional concentrate on feed intake and milk production in middle‐to‐late lactation buffaloes, four multiparous Murrah buffaloes were assigned to a 3 × 3 Latin square design experiment. The TMR silage, which had higher neutral and acid detergent fiber contents and digestibility than concentrate ( P < 0.05) and similar crude protein ( CP ) and total digestible nutrient ( TDN ) contents with concentrate were used for the lactation experiment. The treatments were control ( CTL ) fed concentrate at 0.6% of body weight ( BW ), and T1 and T2 fed the TMR silage at 0.6 and 1.2% of BW on a dry matter ( DM ) basis, respectively, with rice straw ad libitum . Daily intakes of DM , CP and TDN , and BW change were higher in T2 than in CTL and T1 ( P < 0.05). Although milk composition did not differ among the treatments, milk yield ( MY ) was higher in T2 ( P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in MY / DM intake and MY / TDN intake among the treatments. The increase of BW and MY in middle‐to‐late lactation buffaloes might have been due to high TDN intake from supplementary TMR silage.