NOVEL MULTINUTRIENT CATTLE BISCUIT AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO TRADITIONAL UREA SUPPLEMENTS FOR DAIRY COW

Abstract

The study was carried out in a selected commercial dairy farm of Patiya under Chittagong Division, Bangladesh for a period of 60 days from September to October 2014 to innovate novel cattle biscuit as an alternative to traditional urea supplements for dairy cow. Twenty Local × Holstein crossbred milking cows were selected according to age, live weight, BCS and daily milk yield from the experimental farm. Animals were randomly distributed into five dietary treatment groups designated as T0, T1, T2, T3 and T4 having four replicates per treatment. All animals were stall fed. Ration was prepared and supplied to the animal as per recommendation. Multi-nutrient Cattle Biscuit (MCB) was fed twice daily. All animals had free access to clean, cool drinking water. Intake of basal diet was recorded daily. All animals were kept in a single row stanchion barn. Body weight was measured, milk yield was recorded, milk and blood parameters were tested in the laboratory. The daily milk yield of the cows in the experimental groups supplemented with varied levels of MCB significantly (p<0.05) increased for the last four weeks. The highest average milk yield (8.3 kg/d) was recorded in T3 group and the lowest milk yield (6.3 kg/d) was recorded in T0 group. Milk composition of the cows varied in an irregular fashion during the experimental period. Fat percent of milk significantly (p<0.05) increased during 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 7th and 8th week in the treatment groups compared to control group. Besides fat, protein percent of milk increased significantly in the 1st (p<0.001); 2nd, 5th, 8th (p<0.05) and 7th (p<0.01) week. The Solids not fat (SNF) percent differed significantly in the 1st, 2nd, 5th (p<0.01); 3rd and 7th (p<0.001) week. Unlike SNF, the total solids (TS) percent differed significantly in the 1st, 7th (p<0.01); 3rd (p<0.001) and 5th (p<0.05) week. On average (1-8 weeks), milk fat, milk protein, SNF and TS percent were higher in the T2 (25% urea supplemented MCB) and lower in T0 (without MCB) group respectively. Unlike milk components, there was no significant difference (p>0.05) in serum cholesterol, serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT), bilirubin, urea and total protein level throughout the whole experimental period. However, serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT) differed significantly (p<0.05) only in the 5th week. Creatinine differed significantly in the 2nd (p<0.01) and 3rd (p<0.05) week. Glucose level differed significantly in the 1st (p<0.01), 5th (p<0.001) and 8th (p<0.01) week. In the light of above observations, it might be concluded that, MCB supplementation substantially improved milk yield and milk composition and did not interfere blood parameters of the experimental cows. Therefore, 25% urea supplemented MCB in addition to basal diet may be suggested as a novel alternative to traditional urea supplements for dairy cow.