DIVISION OF ANIMAL NUTRITION

Research Achievements

• A strategic supplementary schedule developed for field flocks for optimising production.
• Concentrate supplementation to lambs at 1.5% of BW during pre-weaning and 2.5% of BW during post-weaning recommended for 25% higher growth.
• Nutritive value of grasses, legumes, top feeds, pastures and prickly pear cactus evaluated
• Fallen tree leaves up to 20% in the diet and siris and prosopis pods up to 40% in the concentrate feed can be incorporated.
• Maintenance requirement 36 g TDN and 5 g of DCP per kg metabolic weight is recommended.
• Ewe during advanced pregnancy requires 7.8 g of DCP and 58.7 g of TDN per kg metabolic weight.
• Nitrogen-sulphur ratio of 5:1 and sulphur level of 0.24% in the diet is considered optimum for wool production.
• Sheep spent 4.16 MJ of energy daily on stall and spent 43% more energy on pasture.
• A stocking rate of 5 ewes/ha on cenchrus gave satisfactory performance.
• Silvi-pasture provide biomass of 21- 28 q/ha and support sheep performance.
• Damaged wheat can be incorporated in lamb ration.
• Creep ration should contain 14.5% CP and 2.97 Mcal energy for higher pre-weaning gain.
• Milk replacer with coconut oil or a combination of vegetable oil provides feed conversion ratio < 4.0 in lambs.
• Various feed formulations (high grain, inclusion of bypass fat) support growth rate of 150-180 g per day with 18-20% feed efficiency and lambs attain 33 kg BW at 6 month of age.
• Spices straw serve as rumen modulator and ajowin, fenugreek and fennel incorporated up to 5-10% reduced methane production.
• Similarly, tree leaves [Jatropha- (Jatropha curcas L), Pala (Ziziphus nummularia), Khejri (Prosopis cineraria), Ardu (Ailanthus excelsa), Neem (Azadirachta indica)] can be used (up to 20%) for lowering methane production and improving fermentation attributes.
• Defaunation as a means of rumen metabolic manipulation could deliver more microbial and dietary protein availability with better ruminal fermentation efficiency.
• Feeding of probiotics, e.g. Lactbacillus acidophilus during pre-weaning and Saccharomyces cerevisiae during post-weaning support GI health and improved gain and FCR.
•  Area specific mineral mixture developed for different category of livestock to improve reproductive efficiency and milk yield.
• Exogenous enzyme at pre-treatment of roughages at 30% moisture level improved nutrient digestibility.
• Complete feeds with concentrate and roughage developed for different production.
• Various tree leaves can be used up to 15% in the complete diet but maximum gain is obtained on mulberry based concentrate feed.