COMPARISON OF RICE GRUEL WITH MOLASSES ON GROWTH AND RUMEN MICROBS IN CATTLE

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to observe the possibility of using rice gruel as a source of readily fermentable energy and to see it’s effect on rumen pH as well as microbial population in cattle. Six growing cattle were divided into two groups fed on two different concentrate mixtures at the point of molasses and rice gruel. G- I was fed with rice gruel where molasses were offered to G- II, in addition, three hours of grazing and ad-lib. water was offered to all the experimental animals. The feeding trial was continued for 60 days. Live weight changes during the experimental period for Group I and Group II were observed as 303.33±14.53 and 406.67±14.53 gm, respectively. The pH of the rumen liquor varied from 5.4±0.35 to 7.3±0.46 in Group I and 6.3±0.90 to 7.87±0.42 in Group II with highest value at 12 h in both groups and lowest value at 20 h and 16 h of post feeding in G-I and G-II, respectively. The bacterial population (cellx1010) per ml of SRL ranged from 7.33±0.50 to 9.67±0.15 in G-I and 5.23 ±0.25 to 8.47±0.15 in G-II with peak level at 20 h and 12 h in G-I and G-II diets, respectively and lowest value found at 4 h and 8 h of post feeding in G-I & G-II diets, respectively. The rumen protozoal population (cellx106) per ml of SRL ranged from 4.53±0.50 to 7.33±0.50 in G-I and 3.30 ±1.0 to 6.57±1.70 in G-II being highest at 20 h of post feeding in both G-I & G-II diets and lowest at 4 h and 24 h of post feeding in G-I & G-II diets, respectively. It can be concluded that rice gruel was less effective than molasses as fermentable energy source, however in situation where molasses is not available or costly, rice gruel does appear to have a place as readily fermentable energy source.