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ThesisItem Open Access Growth performance of crossbred calves fed molasses and probiotics supplemented diet(College of Veterinary Science, Assam Agricultural University, Khanapara Campus, 2020) Ahmed, Sanidur; Bordoloi, Jyoti PrasadThe present experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of feeding molasses and probiotics on the growth performance of crossbred dairy calves. Twelve healthy crossbred calves of both sexes of similar age and body weight were allocated to two experimental groups, control (T0) and treatment (T1) with six animals in each group. Calves of both groups were fed with a standard basal diet consisting of concentrate, green fodder, and paddy straw along with Molasses @ 3% of DM requirement and multi-strain probiotics @10 gm/animal/day daily in the treatment group. The experiment was conducted as a feeding trial for six fortnights and a digestibility trial thereafter for five days in the two experimental groups. The average initial and final body weight in the 6th fortnight of the calves were 89.500±7.843 and 89.500±8.290 kg and 110.667±7.932 and 119.500±7.178 kg respectively in T0 and T1 groups. Analysis of variance of the data did not reveal any significant difference (P>0.05) in average body weight in the control (T0) and treatment (T1) groups. The overall mean daily body weight gain is 0.357±0.019 kg in the treatment group (T1) which was significantly (P<0.01) higher than the control group which is 0.252 ± 0.013 kg. In respect of different fortnights, the Average daily gain was significantly (P<0.01) higher from the 4th to 6th fortnight. Similarly, the overall fortnightly body weight gain was significantly higher (P<0.01) in the treatment group (5.000 ± 0.270 kg) than in the control group (3.556 ± 0.171 kg) of calves. The fortnightly body weight gain was higher (P<0.01) in the treatment group than in the control group from the 2nd to 6th fortnight. The overall mean values of the conformation traits (cm) in the control group (T0 ) and treatment group (T1) groups respectively were: 97.17± 1.21 and 99.08 ±1.15 cm for body length; 111.69 ±1.12 and 112.64± 1.06 cm for chest girth as well as 100.23± 0.90 and 100.85 ±0.86 cm for height at wither. All the conformation traits revealed a highly positive correlation with body weight. Analysis of variance of conformation traits showed no significant (P>0.05) difference between control (T0) and treatment (T1) groups respectively. The overall average daily DM intake was 2.76 ± 0.09 kg in the control group (T0) and 2.84 ± 0.09 kg in the treatment group (T1). Feeding of Molasses and multistrain probiotics had a positive effect on dry matter intake in the treatment group and it was higher than the control group in all fortnights. However, analysis of variance results revealed no significant (P>0.05) difference between the average values of DM intake between control (T0) and treatment (T1) groups. The overall mean values of the feed-eating time were 243.21±0.58 min. in the control (T0) and 240.42±0.54 min. in the treatment (T1) group. Analysis of variance revealed that there was a significant (P<0.05) difference between overall average feed-eating time in the control (T0) and treatment (T1) groups. The feed-eating time was reduced significantly (P<0.05) in the treatment group (T1) from the 2nd to 6th fortnight. The average FCR values were 11.77 ± 0.79 and 10.89 ± 1.00 in 1st fortnight and 10.74 ± 0.39 and 6.39 ± 0.68 in the 6th fortnight in control (T0) and treatment (T1) groups respectively. On an overall basis, FCR values were 10.89 ± 0.24 and 8.35 ± 0.40 in the control (T0) and treatment (T1) groups. Analysis of variance revealed that there was a highly significant (P<0.01) effect of supplementation of Molasses and probiotics ii on the feed conversion ratio(FCR) of the experimental animals. Further, the C.D. test revealed that the FCR in the treatment (T1) group was significantly reduced from the 3rd fortnight to the 6th fortnight compared to the control (T0) group. The overall mean values of the physiological parameters in the T0 and T1 groups respectively were as: respiration rate, 26.17 ± 0.09 and 26.45 ± 0.11 breath per minute; pulse rate, 72.04± 0.13 and 72.00 ±0.12 beats per minute and rectal temperature, 101.07± 0.11 and 100.95± 0.11(oF). Analysis of the variance of the data revealed no significant (P>0.05) difference in respect of the three parameters between the control (T0) and treatment (T1) groups. . The blood biochemical and hematological parameters like. serum glucose, serum total protein, and hemoglobin were within the normal range for crossbred calves in both the control and treatment groups and the data did not reveal any significant difference (P>0.05). The average digestibility coefficient (%) in T0 and T1 groups respectively were: 67.47±0.26 and 73.33±0.44 for dry matter (DM); 70.37±1.55 and 76.17±0.44 for organic matter (OM); 66.67±0.73 and 71.67±0.44 for crude protein (CP); 66.40±0.49 and 72.63±0.27 for ether extract (EE); 63.97±0.27 and 72.37±0.18 for crude fibre (CF) and 73.40 ±1.06 and 79.26±0.73 for nitrogen-free extract (NFE). Analysis of the data revealed significantly (P<0.01) higher digestibility of the organic nutrients in molasses and probiotics fed treatment (T1) group than control (T0) group. The economic analysis of the cost of feeding the experimental calves revealed the following: (i) average daily cost of feed consumption (on DM basis) per calf was Rs. 42.53 and Rs. 49.06, (ii) average net cost of feed consumption (on DM basis) per calf were Rs. 3572.81 and Rs. 4121.04, (iii) cost of feeding per kg body weight gain was Rs. 167.50 and Rs. 137.37 in control (T0) and treatment (T1) respectively. From the results, it was observed that the total cost of feeding was a little higher in the treatment group than in the control group. However, the total body weight gain was higher in the treatment group (T1) than in the control group (T0) which resulted in a lower cost of feeding per kg weight gain in the treatment than in the control group.
