Effect of crop residue based complete feed blocks on nutrients digestibility and growth in buffalo calves

An experiment was conducted on twenty female buffalo calves divided into four equal groups and fed dry roughage based complete feed blocks viz. wheat straw and concentrate (T1); wheat straw - sugarcane bagasse (1:1) and concentrate (T2); wheat straw - mustard straw (1:1) and concentrate (T3) and wheat straw - paddy straw (1:1) and concentrate (T4). The roughage to concentrate ratio was 60: 40. The DMI/100 kg B.W was 2.20, 2.23, 2.09 and 2.46 kg for treatments T1 to T4, respectively and was higher (P<0.05) in T4 as compared to other treatments. The digestibility of DM was higher (P<0.05) in T1 and T4 as compared to T2. Similarly the digestibility of CP and NFE was higher (P<0.05) in T1, T3 and T4 as compared to T2. CF and ADF digestibility was higher (P<0.05) in T1 and T4 as compared to T2 and T3. NDF digestibility was higher (P<0.05) in T1 followed by T4, T2 and T3. The DCP and TDN intake/100 kg BW was highest in T4 followed by T1, T2 and T3. The daily gain in weight was higher (P<0.05) in T1 and T4 vis-a-vis T2 and T3 The cost (Rs.) of ration per kg gain in body weight was 35.11, 42.54, 39.47 and 30.32 in treatments 1 to 4, respectively. The study inferred that wheat straw were paddy straw were comparable to each other but more digestible regarding most of the nutrients as compared to sugarcane bagasse and mustard straw, used in complete feed blocks.