Buffalo:
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Feeding of the cattle/ buffalo is depend on many factors
- Nutrient requirement of animal
- Physiological state of animal
- Breed of animal
- Level of production
- Available feed and fodder
- Quality and cost of feed ingredients
Following thumb rule is useful to calculate the ration for dairy cattle and buffalo producing 4-8 liters of milk per day.
Thumb rule for formulation of ration
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For Zebu Cattle For cross bred/Buffaloes
For maintenance:
Straw 4 kg. 4-6 kg. Concentrate 1-1.25 kg 2.0 kg.
For Gestation: 1.25 kg conc. 1.75 kg conc.

For milk production (Conc.): 1 kg/2.5 lit. of milk 1 kg/2 lit. of milk
(a) For High yielders 10.0 kg extra amount of green fodder should be provided to meet the demand of energy requirement which could not be met by the thumb rule method
(b) The concentrate mixture of about 14-16% DCP and 68- 70% TDN could be prepared without actual computation of nutrients by following assumptions
Ingredients Range Parts taken
Oil cakes 25-35 parts 35
Cereals 25-35 30
Cereal by products 10-25 17
Pulse chunni 5-20 15
Mineral mix. 2 2
Common salt 1 1
100
• To fulfill the requirement of livestock at various physiological states, now it is to be prerequisites that balancing of nutrients in feed of livestock. To balance the energy and protein ratio in compound concentrate mixture, it is essential to include proper amount and proportion of energy and protein rich ingredients.