Vol. 11, Special Issue 5 (2022)

Author(s):
A Chandra Mouli, B Devasena, MVAN Suryanarayana and G Gangaraju

Abstract:
A survey was carried out in four mandals viz., Palamaner, Chittoor, Bangarupalem, Pakala of Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh to understand the feeding practices traditionally followed by the farmers maintaining lactating Punganur cows. The information was obtained from 50 farmers in a pre-structured proforma by personal interviewing the livestock farmers. Results indicated that, among the dry roughages Paddy straw was fed to the animals by majority of the farmers (38.5-66.7%), followed by Bajra straw (16.6-40%), while Ragi straw (16.7-38.5%) was being used to a limited extent. Among the green fodders majority of farmers were feeding Hedge Lucerne (25-60%), followed by Super Napier (15.4-16.6%) and APBN (13.3-25.0%). While CO-4 (13.3%), Lucerne (23.1%), Cowpea (20%) were being used to a limited extent. Feeding of Homemade concentrate mixture (HMCM) is a common practice. The Maize grain and ground nut cake (GNC) combination (HMCM-I) was most preferred one (36%). Whereas few farmers were preparing the homemade concentrate mixtures of different combinations, like DORB + Green gram chuni + Cotton seed cak e (HMCM-II) and DORB + Mustard cake (HMCM-III), to a limited extent (20% and 10%), depending on the availability of the ingredients. The Nutritional status of lactating Punganur cows indicated that DMI (%) and CP intake (%) of the animals indicated deficiency of (-) 17.29% and (-) 28.05%, respectively. While the TDN intake (%) was on positive side (+18.42%) as compared to ICAR, (2013) recommendations for dairy cattle. The milk yield was in the range of 1.20-1.42 kg/d, whereas milk composition indicated marginal variation, except for fat.