In Sacco Degradation Characteristics in Bulls Fed Cereal Stover Based Complete Rations

An experiment was conducted to determine the chemical composition and nutrient degradability of cereal stover based complete rations using nylon bag technique in buffalo bulls. Two iso-nitrogenous complete rations were prepared by incorporating two cereal stovers viz. jowar (T1) and maize (T2) and concentrate mixture in 60:40 proportion. The experiment was conducted using two rumen cannulated buffalo bulls, fed a basal diet comprising of 5 kg para grass, 4 kg paddy straw and 1.5 kg concentrate mixture. Complete rations were evaluated for chemical composition and ruminal DM, CP, NDF and ADF degradability using nylon bag technique. In sacco degradation kinetics of DM, NDF and ADF revealed that rapidly soluble fraction ‘a' was higher (P < 0.01) in T1 (except ADF) while, slowly degradable fraction ‘b' and potential degradation ‘a + b' was higher (P < 0.01) in T2 compared to T1. The effective degradability of DM and ADF were higher (P < 0.01) in T2 compared to T1 while ED of NDF revealed no significant differences among the treatments. Further, in sacco degradation kinetics of crude protein revealed no significant differences among the complete rations. It is therefore concluded that maize stover based complete ration may have some advantage relative to jowar stover based complete ration, due to its higher DM and ADF degradability and degradation rate in the rumen.