Effect of Feeding Formaldehyde Treated Groundnut Cake on Dry Matter Intake, Nutrients Digestibility and Efficiency in Lactating Crossbred cows

Fifteen crossbred cows in early stage of lactation, divided into 3 groups of 5 each on the basis of milk yield (6.0 to 10.0 kg) and body weight (301 to 468 kg), were fed on concentrate mixture based on untreated groundnut cake (GNC) (T1), protected GNC treated with formaldehyde @ 0.5 (T2) or 0.1 gFA/100 g CP (T3) along with wheat straw (Triticum aestivum) ad lib. + 5 kg green berseem (Trifolium alexandrinum). Intake of DM and TDN/kg W0.75 were affected significantly (P<0.05) by protected protein feeding. However, differences among groups for intake of CP and DCP/kg W0.75 were non-significant. The voluntary water intake and total water intake was significantly (P<0.01) higher in group T3 than in groups T2 and T 1. The digestibility of nutrients, except that of CF, had non-significant variation among groups. CF digestibility was higher (P<0.01) in group T3 than in groups Tand T. The solid corrected milk yield in groups T, T and T was 9.91 ± 0.19, 10.11±0.39 and 10.46±0.23 kg, respectively, and value was higher (P<0.05) in group T3 than in group T1. Protein and energetic efficiencies remained uninfluenced by the dietary treatments.