Rice Polishings as an Economical Substitute to Wheat Bran as a Supplement to Wheat Straw Diet for Lactating Buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) in Northern Plains of
Centre for
Advanced Studies in Animal Nutrition, Indian Veterinary Research Institute,
Izatnagar-243 122,
ABSTRACT: Twenty-six non-descript lactating
buffaloes from 21 farm families were equally divided in two groups. The
lactating buffaloes were fed a basal diet of wheat straw ad libitum
and supplemented with either wheat bran (WBC) or rice polish (RPC) supplement
on iso-nitrogenous basis for 4 months duration. The
amount of supplement was decided on the basis of milk yield. The dry-matter
intake (% BW or g/kg W 0.75 ) of lactating buffaloes
from straw or concentrate moiety did not differ significantly irrespective of
dietary supplements. The digestibility coefficient of DM,
Small holders
livestock production systems are largely based on fibrous crop residues in
developing countries. The major limitations with crop residues are their
bulkiness and poor nutritive value. With the various enrichment (treatment)
technologies available to improve the nutritive value finding little acceptance
by farmers (Owen and Jayasuriya, 1989; Dolberg, 1992; Devendra, 1997),
the only viable option left is to concentrate on catalytic supplementation with
other feeds that provide additional protein, minerals and energy. Of the
several alternative supplementation strategies that may be adopted, the most
common is the use of purchased protein supplements, such as oil cakes (Devendra, 1997). However, the high cost, poor accessibility
and tendency to divert better feeds (brans, cakes and
chunies) to cities for use on specialized peri-urban dairy farms (Kiran
Singh et al., 1997) restricted their use in animal feeding in rural sector.
Considerable research has gone into identifying and assessing the various
possibilities, and there is no dearth of on-station feeding trials to evaluate
nutritive value and animal response (Devendra, 1997).
Rice polish is freely available in predominantly paddy- cultivated areas of
Upper Gangetic Plains of northern India at a much
cheaper rate (Rs. 300/q) as compared to wheat bran (Rs. 500/q) and usually not favoured
by the farmers as a supplement in the diet of lactating animals, especially
during winter. Since chemical composition of rice polish is comparable to that
of wheat bran, farmers may be encouraged to use rice polish as a substitute of
wheat bran in the diet of lactating buffaloes to reduce the cost of milk production.
Keeping this in view, an on-farm trial was conducted in the selected locales to
assess the comparative performance of lactating buffaloes given wheat bran or
rice polish as a constituent of concentrate supplement to the basal diet of
wheat straw.
The location chosen for the on-farm
investigation, the
A
120-day lactation trial was conducted on 26 lactating buffaloes (2nd
to 6th lactation; avg. body weight: 502+-13.5kg) collectively owned
by 21 farmers of Kalapur/Mudia Khera
villages of
The
nutrient digestibility was measured by restricting the normal movements of the
animals with the help of owners during digestion trial. Perception of
participating farmers regarding feasibility of replacing wheat bran with rice
polish in the diet of lactating buffaloes and net benefit were also recorded at
regular intervals.
The
lactating buffaloes were fed in individual feeding stalls during entire
experimental period and provided free access to water twice daily. A
digestibility trial of days was conducted following atleast
60 days experimental feeding. Total dry matter intake and faecal
output(24 h) were recorded daily and a sub-sample
collected and dried in a forced drought oven to a constant weight for dry
matter estimation . Representative samples of each daily faecal
collection were drawn, pooled for seven days and preserved in diluted (25 %) sulphuric acid for N- estimation. The other samples were
retained for further chemical analysis.
Analytical procedure
The pooled feed, residue and faeces samples, collected daily during the digestion trial
were analysed for proximate composition (AOAC, 1995)
and fibre fractions (Goering
and Van Soest, 1970) Milk samples collected at
fortnightly intervals were analysed for fat, total solids, SNF, crude protein and ash
(AOAC, 1995). The results were subjected to analysis of variance and treatment
means were compared using t-test (Snedecor and
Cochran, 1989).
The
chemical composition of wheat bran, rice polish, WBC, RPC and wheat straw used
in this ecperiment is given in table 1. Ether
extract, ADF and ash content of rice polish were higher than wheat bran.
However, CP and NDF content were higher than wheat bran. The CP content of
wheat straw was below the critical level required at normal forage consumption
by buffaloes (NRC, 1981; Kearl, 1982). Though the
supplements were iso-nitrogenous, the ether extract
content was significantly higher in RPC.
Total
daily dry matter intake (%BW or g/kg W 0.75) of lactating buffaloes
did not differ significantly (P<0.05) between two treatments. The DMI of
lactating buffaloes ranges from 98.9 to 148.5 g/kg W 0.75 (Taparia
and Sharma, 1980; Lamba et al., 2002). In this study,
the buffaloes had DM intakes of 116-119 g/kg W 0.75, which clearly indicates
that both the supplements were equally palatable and non-repugnant. Further,
the intake of straw or concentrate moiety of the diet did not differ
significantly in buffaloes irrespective of dietary supplement (table 2). Rice
polish has been reported to improve dry-matter intake,
stimulate volatile fatty acid concentration, microbial numbers and efficiency
of rumen synthesis (Preston et al., 1976; Elliot et. al., 1978; Cardenas Garcia
et al., 1992). However, Patle and Tripathi
(1978) reported that 59% deoiled rice polish in the
ration of lactating buffaloes had no effect on DMI as observed in this study.
Similarly, the digestibility coefficient of dry matter (DM), organic matter (
The
average daily milk production of buffaloes (kg/d) was similar between the
dietary supplements through out the experiment (fig. 1). Similarly, the milk
composition (table 3) in terms of total solids, crude protein, fat and ash did
not differ significantly in buffaloes fed WBC or RPC. The comparable milk yield
and composition in the present study was in agreement with the earlier report
of Patle and Tripathi
(1978) that indicate no significant effect on these parameters by incorporation
of 59% deoiled rice polish in the concentrate mixture
for lactating buffaloes.
The
cost-benefit analysis of substitution effect of rice polish revealed that cost
of concentrate (Rs/kg; US $ 1.00 = Rs.48.00) for
lactating buffaloes could be reduced from 6.00 to 4.82 if wheat bran is
completely replaced by rice polish. The cost of milk production (Rs/ lit) was 4.13 in buffaloes given WBC compared to Rs. 3.59 in their counterparts given RPC. Thus, the milk
producer could save up to Rs. 3.30 per day or Rs. 100.00 per month on feeding of a buffalo giving about
4-6 lits milk/day. The rate of return on investment made for feeds was
220.4 and 268.8% on WBC and RPC, respectively. In the opinion of the
participating farmers, substitution of wheat bran with rice polish
significantly improves the level of benefits. Farmers perceived feeding of rice
polish as practical without any constraint. All the farmers continued to feed
rice polish even after the termination of the experiment.
Rice
polish can be effectively used as an economical substitute of wheat-bran in the
prevalent feeding systems of buffaloes in the Indo-gangetic
plains of
This
study was financially supported by funds provided by Indian Council of
Agricultural Research (AP-Cessfund),
AOAC.1995.
Official Methods of Analysis. 16th ed. Association of Official Analytical Chemists,
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Chicco, C. F., Perdono,
J.T., Garbati, S. T. and Shultz, T. A. 1974. Replacement of rice polish for
fattening
pigs. Agronomia Tropical-Venzuela.
24: 477-481.
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animals in
adoption
in crop/ livestock systems. In: C.Renard (ed). Crop Residues in sustainable Mixed
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utilization of urea-ammonia treated crop residues; Biological
and
socio-economic aspects of animal production and application of the technology
on small farms. Livestock Research for Rural Development 4: 20-31.
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escaping
degradation in the rumen of steers fed chopped sugar cane, molasses/urea
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Goering, H. K. and VanSoest, P. J. 1970. Forage Fibre
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particles
and rumen bacteria in the uptake of long chain fatty acids and triglycerides.
J. Applied Bact. 37:633-641.
ICAR. 1998. Nutrient Requirements of
Livestock and Poultry. Indian Council of Agriculture
Research.
Kearl, L. C. 1982. Nutrient
requirement of ruminants in developing countries.
Experimental Station, Utah State
University, International Feedstuffs Institute,
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in mixed farming systems of south
Lamba, J.S., Wadhwa, M. and Bakshi, M.P.S.
2002. Effect of
feeding naturally fermented urea
wheat
straw on the productive and reproductive performance of milch
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M.C.M. 1989. Use of crop residues as animal feeds in developing
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A review. Research Development in Agriculture, 6: 124-128.
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rice polish in milch buffalo
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Indian J.
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in a sugar cane diet; effect of the level of rice polishing and of processing the sugar cane by derinding or chopping. Tropical Anim. Prod. 1: 150-162.
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Cochran, W. G. 1989. Statistical Methods. 7th ed. The
Attributes |
Wheat bran |
Supplements Rice polish |
WBC |
RPC |
Wheat Straw |
Ingredient(%DM) |
|
|
|
|
|
Maize/Wheat |
|
|
10 |
10 |
|
Wheat bran |
|
|
65 |
- |
|
Rice Polish |
|
|
- |
63 |
|
Deoiled SBM |
|
|
25 |
27 |
|
Chemical composition (% DM) |
|||||
Dry-matter |
91.01 |
90.00 |
90.1 |
90.2 |
92.8 |
Crude protein |
14.05 |
12.01 |
22.9 |
21.7 |
3.9 |
Ether extract |
5.52 |
12.51 |
4.3 |
8.6 |
1.6 |
Ash |
6.40 |
13.96 |
6.5 |
11.0 |
11.2 |
NDF |
45.70 |
39.96 |
33.7 |
29.5 |
78.5 |
ADF |
14.02 |
20.08 |
12.1 |
15.9 |
47.8 |
WBC: Wheat bran based supplement,
RPC: R ice polish based supplement
Table 2. Nutrient intake, digestibility and
plane of nutrition of buffaloes on WBC or RPC supplements
Variables |
Supplements WBC |
RPC |
SEM |
Body
Weight, Kg |
505.00 |
498.70 |
13.14 |
Intake,
kg/d |
|
|
|
Dry
matter |
12.65 |
12.26 |
0.30 |
Roughage |
9.56 |
9.35 |
0.35 |
Concentrate |
2.87 |
2.85 |
0.20 |
Organic
matter |
11.09 |
10.78 |
0.31 |
DM Intake |
|
|
|
kg W 0.75 |
119.25 |
115.98 |
2.88 |
%live
weight |
2.52 |
2.45 |
0.08 |
Digestibility,% |
|
|
|
DM |
51.38 |
50.01 |
2.05 |
|
55.52 |
53.99 |
2.06 |
CP |
53.67 |
54.02 |
1.98 |
EE |
55.67 |
58.79 |
2.32 |
NDF |
50.80 |
48.90 |
1.97 |
ADF |
41.71 |
40.03 |
2.41 |
Nutrient
concentration, %DM |
|||
DCP |
4.42 |
4.37 |
0.31 |
TDN |
50.83 |
50.08 |
2.13 |
ME, Mcal/kg |
1.84 |
1.81 |
0.07 |
Nutrient
intake, g/Kg W 0.75 |
|||
DCP |
5.23 |
5.07 |
0.30 |
DOM |
57.37 |
55.41 |
1.99 |
TDN |
60.19 |
58.16 |
2.01 |
ME, Kcal |
218 |
210 |
- |
WBC: Wheat
bran based supplement, RPC: Rice polish based supplement
Table 3. Milk composition (%) of buffaloes on WBC or RPC supplements
Variables
Supplements
SEM
WBC
RPC |
|||
Total
solids |
17.36 |
17.30 |
0.60 |
Crude
protein |
3.87 |
3.75 |
0.17 |
Fat |
7.45 |
7.22 |
0.32 |
SNF |
9.90 |
10.06 |
0.26 |
Ash |
8.7 |
8.8 |
0.02 |
WBC: Wheat
bran based supplement, RPC: Rice polish based supplement