Effect of Roughage Feed on Cattle Body Weight Gain

Hello good people of Steemit. How are you all? Hope you all well by the grace of almighty. Every day I try to make new informative content for steemian. In continuation of the series I write a blog in the title of “ Effect of Roughage Feed on Cattle Body Weight Gain ”

Basically I am science background student and I write this blog on the basis of my research data and experience.
Very beginning of my blog I want to clear some term. Because this term is very much related to meaning of this blog. Do you know what is cattle roughage feed? What is Rice Straw, Napier Grass, Sugarcane and Cassava pill? Ok, no problem. Let me explain it.

Roughage Feed:

Roughage is feed stuffs which contain more than 18% Crude Fibre (CF) and less than 80% Total Digestible Nutrient (TDN) on air dry basis. Maximum roughage's contain high content of cell wall material. The protein mineral, mineral and vitamin is highly mutable.

[Image Source](www.pixabay.com) Legumens roughages may have 20% or more crude Protein (CP), although almost of in the form of non-nitrogen protein (NPN). Other roughages like rice straw contain 3-4% CP. Mineral content is also variable. Some of roughage is high source of Calcium and Magnesium. Phosphorous content may moderate to low and Potassium content is high. The trace mineral vary greatly depending on species of plant, soil and fertilizer use.

Roughage may divided into two major sub-group on the basis of moisture content-

1. Green Roughage (60-90% moisture)
2. Dry Roughage (10-15% moisture). Green roughage further classified such as pasture, tree leaves, cultivated fodder, crops and roots. On the other hand Dry roughage further classified as hay and straw based on methods of preparation and nutritive value.

Rice Straw:

Rice straw is a vegetable part of rice plant.

Generally it’s getting after harvesting of rice plant. Rice straw is roughage feed source which contain not more than 3-4% crude protein. The cell wall of rice straw is constituent with pectin, hemicellulose, silica and other components.

Napier Grass:

Napier grass is leguminous fodder crop. It is also a good roughage source. The moister content of this fodder more than 80%. This roughage fodder is highly palatable and highly nutritious when it’s green leave and not more than 1 metre height. It’s also use for silage making.

Sugarcane:

Generally sugarcane cultivated for sugar production. But we can use sugarcane as a cattle feed. It’s a good roughage source. The sugarcane plant is perennial grass hold 2.5 m height.

The diameter of stalk is around 2-6 cm. A Sugarcane plant may contain 10-15 steems. Sugarcane is leafy and its around 1-2 m long and 3-8 cm wide with a thick midrib.
Whole body of sugarcane plant may be used as a green forage for cattle goat, buffalo etc. Sugarcane stalks may be grazed cut and carry system or directly chopped and fed to animal. But in my research I used as a chopped fermented form.

Cassava peell:

Cassava ( Manihot esculenta ) is widely cultivated throughout the tropics and subtropics regions due to its growing ability to different types soil conditions and lower management.

Cassava peel is also a good source of roughage. Cassava has verities of by products and cassava peel is one of them. Cassava peels can be used as a roughage and as an energy feed source in cattle feed. It’s hold 5 to 15% of the root.
Cassava peel get after the water removed from tubers and peeled mechanically. It is highly digestible by products.
Cassava Nutritional value chart – source

I think now you are clear about those terms which I mentioned before. Form here I start main discussion about Effect of Roughage Feed on Cattle Body Weight Gain
For the body weight gain the roughage have great role which make production along with reduce the production cost. In this discussion you may know which roughage (rice straw, Napier & sugarcane) is better performance to cattle body weight gain. Actually I have a research on this topic which I conducted at Kasetsart University, Animal science farm, Thailand in the time of Academic internship program. In my research I used two cattle species, Thai native cattle and Wagyu Crossbred; [N.B. Wagyu is Japanese cattle breed].

We use 20% fermented cassava peels. It shouldn’t be fed alone, as their protein and mineral content can’t support optimum rumen function and productivity. Their actual utilization requires supplementation with readily fermentable protein and by-pass protein along with micronutrients like phosphorus, sulphur, and vitamin B. So, We use rice straw, Napier, sugarcane as roughage source. If fed in a balanced diet, cassava peels are a good feed for cattle as well as ruminant’s animal.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

General:
All procedures were conducted at the Animal Science farm, Kasetsart University , Sakhon Nakhon ,Thailand.

Animals and Housing:
Six Thai native cattle (3 males, 3 females) and six crossbred of Wagyu with Thai native (3 males, 3 females) were used in this experiment. Animals were housed in individual 3 × 2 m2 stall semi enclosed pens equipped with concrete feed bunks and ad libitum fresh waters.

Experimental Design and Data Collection:
The experiment was laid out following Latin Square Design. The treatment structure was arranged in a 3 × 4 factorial with ruminant species and forage source. The study evaluated 3 forage sources and 20% fermented cassava peel as concentrate; it was conducted using 2 verities of cattle (Thai native and crossbred) and 12 animals. The period consists of 4 weeks (1st week for adjustment and the rest 3 weeks for data collection).
Forage was fed daily at morning and evening 10% more than animal’s requirement in order to access ad libitum; refusals were weighed daily. The animals were fed by using the following ration.

NB: Mineral sources were added separately
Contrast: SC =Sugarcane, NG = Napier Grass , RS = Rice Straw

CALCULATION:

Result:

Performance of animals were shown in the following tables for different treatments

DISCUSSION:

Total Feed Intake:
Wagyu x Thai native consumed more rice straw and Napier grass than Thai native. But Thai native consumed more sugarcane (Table 3 ).
Among the three treatments, consumption of fermented Napier grass was higher (Table 2). Because moisture content of Napier is higher than sugarcane and rice straw.
Dry Matter Intake:
DM Intake of rice straw and fermented Napier grass is higher in Wagyu x Thai native (Table 3).
Among three treatments DM intake of Napier based diet was higher (Table 2). Because the total feed intake of that diet also was higher than others.
DMI/BW:
DMI/BW was higher in Wagyu x Thai native for the three treatments than Thai native. (Table 3). For sugarcane based diet the DMI/BW was higher (Table 2) than other diets because it contains low NDF.
Avg. Daily Gain:
Wagyu x Thai native gained more weight daily comparatively than Thai native (Table 3). As total DM intake of napier based diet was higher (Table 2) so Avg. daily gain was also higher than other diets.
Feed Conversion Ratio and Total Feed Cost:
Wagyu x Thai native was lower FCR than Thai native cattle (Table 3), as it was genetically superior. Though the total feed cost of the three treatments was around similar but the FCR was lower (Table 2) in fermented Napier based diet. Because the total DMI was higher of that diet than others.

CONCLUSION:

According to the result of 1st period, it was observed that Wagyu x Thai native performed better than Thai native cattle for almost all parameters. Besides, all the selected animals performed better for fermented Napier based diet. So it indicates that Wagyu x Thai native performes better when Napier based diet is fed.

All image are taken from pixabay

REFERENCES:

1. S. Jaturasitha.2008. Carcass and meat quality of Thai native cattle fattened on Guinea grass ( Panicum maxima ) or Guinea grass–legume ( Stylosanthes guianensis ) pastures.
   Meat Science journal

2. Wikipidia

3. Feedipedia

4. Dairy knowledge portal

Thanks a lot for reading My blog. Again will come with next Blog with new Agricultural/ Animal Science content. Until then keep yourself healthy and Fit.