Suthisa Tamchan, Wanwisa Ngampongsai, Saowanit Kuprasert and Surasak Kochapakdee

pp. 385 - 397

Abstract

          The effects of levels of concentrate supplementation on feed intake, nutrient utilization and growth of southern Thai native male cattle were studied. Six cattle, 13±2 months old with average body weight (BW) of 142.9±6.7 kg were randomly devided into 2 groups with 3 heads for each group. The experiment was devided into 2 phases. In phase-I, the cattle were fed with plicatulum (Paspalum plicatulum) hay ad libitum, and were supplemented with concentrate (13.71% crude protein, CP) at 0.5% of BW (G₁group) and 1.0% of BW (G₂ group), for 91 days. Dry matter (DM) intake, organic matter (OM) intake and CP intake of G₂ group (3.74, 3.42 kg/h/d and 276.57 g/h/d, respectively) were significantly higher than those of G₁ group (2.91, 2.65 kg/h/d; p<0.05 and 165.50 g/h/d; p<0.01, respectively) resulting in a higher (p<0.01) growth rate of G₂ group (0.34 kg/h/d) than that of G₁  group (0.01 kg/h/d). Nitrogen (N) balance of G₂ group (0.24 g/kgBW^0.75/d) was significantly higher (p<0.01) than those of G₁ group (-0.01 g/kgBW^0.75/d). The digestible energy (DE) and metabolizable energy (ME) of G₂  group (0.19 and 0.16 Mcal/kgBW^0.75/d, respectively) were higher than that of G₁ group (0.12 Mcal/kgBW^0.75/d; p<0.05 and 0.10 Mcal/kgBW^0.75/d; p<0.01, respectively). The digestibility coefficients of DM, OM CP and total digestible nutrient (TDN) of G₂ group (54.22, 57.11, 47.76 and 54.38%, respectively) were significantly higher than those of G₁ group (48.44, 51.49, 34.49%; p<0.01 and 48.68%; p<0.05, respectively). However, effect of levels of concentrate supplementation were not significantly different (p>0.05) for digestibility coefficients of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) for the either group                       In phase-II, the cattle of G₂ group were continuously supplemented with concentrate at 1.0% of BW while the cattle of G₁ group were shifted to supplement with concentrate at 1.0% of BW. The DM, OM and CP intake of G₂  group (4.01, 3.66 kg/h/d and 305.10 g/h/d, respectively) were significantly higher than those of G₁ group (3.35, 3.09 kg/h/d; p<0.01 and 244.56 g/h/d; p<0.05, respectively). Growth rate, N balance, DE, ME and digestion coefficient of nutrients were not significantly different between the two groups. When
considering overall nutrients intake of cattle for G₁ and G₂ group over 182 days, the DM, OM and CP intake of G₂ group (3.87, 3.54 kg/h/d and 291.29 g/h/d, respectively) were significantly higher than those of G₁  group (3.14, 2.88 kg/h/d; p<0.05 and 204.29 g/h/d; p<0.01, respectively). Similarly, growth rate of G₂ group (0.26kg/h/d) were significantly higher than that of G₁ group (0.08 kg/h/d).
         The findings of this study suggest that southern Thai native male cattle fed plicatulum hay as a roughage could obtain protein and energy levels that meet their requirements for maintenance and growth when they are supplemented with concentrate at 1.0% of BW.

Keywords

• feed intake
• nutrient utilization
• growth
• concentrate
• native cattle