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Figure 3.1 Milk yield of crossbred cows fed on TMR.

3.3.2 Effect of Homemade Balanced Concentrate Feed on Milk Yield and Nutrients Intake in Crossbred Cows

The effect of various concentrate mixtures on body weight changes and milk yield of crossbred cows has been depicted in Table 3.4. It is observed that all the groups maintained the body weight during the experimental period. The initial milk yield varied from 7.10 to 7.30 kg/day in all the animals fed concentrate feed available in the market along with ad libitum wheat straw and Sorghum fodder. After feeding of test concentrates, there was an increase of 2.5–11.85% milk yield as compared to initial milk yield of cows fed balanced concentrate feed available in the market, which indicates that the homemade balanced concentrates are comparable to the commercial concentrate available in the market. The concentration of milk constituents like fat varied from 3.21 to 3.46% and did not vary significantly among the groups. Singh et al. (2019) also evaluated cow cost concentrate feed at farmers' field in Bihar. They reported that milk yield of dairy animals increased by 14.3% per day fed on test diets and 0.7 l/kg of concentrate feed with increase in fat percentage by 21.3%. Farmers' income, on an average, was increased by Rs. 44 per day per animal. However, Sherasia et al. (2016) observed that balanced feeding improved daily fat corrected milk yield by 0.7 kg/cow. They also reported that balanced feeding increased the dietary protein and energy intake by 25.0 and 12.7% whereas, calcium and phosphorus intake were reduced by 30.0 and 27.0%, respectively. Atturi et al. (2018) also observed that feeding balanced ration improved body weight and milk production of dairy animals. Garg (2012) reported that balanced feeding improved milk yield and milk fat content significantly (P < 0.05) by 0.68 kg/day and 0.55% units, respectively, in cows and 0.19 kg/day and 0.34% units, respectively, in buffaloes in the northern region of India. In the southern and central regions of India, milk yield of cows increased by 0.42 and 0.46 kg/day, respectively.

Table 3.4 Performance of crossbred lactating cows fed on homemade balanced concentrates mixtures.

      Garg et al. (2009) reported that ration balancing improved milk production by 0.58 kg/animal/day with increment of 0.5% milk fat. After ration balancing, the improvement in milk production efficiency resulted in more milk from the same amount of feed. Milk production efficiency (kg fat corrected milk yield/kg DMI) of cows was 0.58 and 0.78 kg/kg, respectively for cows, before and after ration balancing. For buffaloes these values were 0.53 and 0.66 kg/kg. Balanced feeding can reduce the methane emissions from livestock farming, which is utilized for production purposes rather than maintenance, also known as the maintenance dilution effect (Garg et al. 2013). Vagamashi et al. (2016) observed improvement of daily milk yield by 0.95 l/day/animal and milk fat by 0.24% (3.98–4.22%) on feeding a balanced ration. This may be attributed to more efficient utilization of dietary energy and protein in lactating cow as reported by Garg and Bhanderi (2011). Findings are also similar to that of Haldar and Rai (2003), Bhanderi et al. (2016), and Mahanta (2017).

Total DMI per 100 kg body weight varied from 3.31 ± 0.09 kg to 3.95 ± 0.21 kg/d which did not differ significantly among the groups. DCP and TDN intake (kg/100 kg body weight) varied from 0.250 ± 0.05 to 0.341 ± 0.11 and 1.882 ± 0.11 to 2.373 ± 0.14 kg, respectively. The DCP and TDN intake did not differ significantly among the groups. Mahanta (2017) also reported DMI of 2.35–2.53 kg/100 kg body weight in crossbred lactating cows fed low cost balanced feed which was much lower than the