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The present project was undertaken to study the methane producing potential of horse manure under indigenous condition. For this, 60 days of feeding trial was conducted on six thoroughbred horses of average 450 kg weight and fed with gram-oats-wheat based ration with ad lib access to local grass and water. The faeces was collected and heaped in closed flux chamber in 10 and 20 kg treatment groups for collection of methane gas. The gas was collected from the air tight gasket fitted to the chamber and analyzed in GLC. The average methane produced from both the groups of manure heaps was high in the first week which reduced drastically in the second week, thereafter the average methane production reduced gradually till 7th week. The methane production in the experiment was at par with the IPCC (1997) default value of 2 tier of horse (10 gCH4/day), with 20 kg manure, while 10 kg manure produced lower average methane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An attempt was made to evaluate the energy supplements for horses by gas production technique by taking 6 commonly available feeds. In the study NDF% was highest in pearl millet (32.24) and oats (32.07), followed by barley (17.93). ADF ranged from 3.42 (maize grain) to 16.45% (pearl millet); similarly maximum amount of cellulose was in pearl millet (13.90) and minimum in maize (2.88%). ADL content ranged from 0.24 (maize) to 2.98% (oats); and hemicellulos e content was highest in oats (18.27) and pearl millet (15.79). AIA content was lowest in sweet potato tuber, oats, maize, wheat and pearl millet. EE% of DM ranged from 1.73% in pearl millet to 4.03% in maize. Total ash (TA) content was highest in oats (2.83) and lowest in pearl millet (1.97). Starch% of NSC, ranged from 89.80% (wheat) to 99.43% (pearl millet). DE (Mcal/kg) varied from 3.17 (pearl millet) to 3.88 (maize). H owever, the NSC (%DM) was highest in wheat (70.17%) and l owest oats (52.78%). CP% DM varied from 24.36% (sweet potato) to 9.46% (barley). NDICP% of CP ranged from 4.16% (wheat) to 15.72% (maize). ADICP% of CP ranged from 2.05% (wheat) to 6.88% (pearl millet). SOLP % of CP was hig hest in oats (53.03), whereas lowest was in maize (13.88%). However, NPN% of SOLP was maximum in pearl millet grain (98.39%) and minimum in oats grain (20.94). In vitro true dry matter digestibility (%) was highest in sweet potato (83.94%) followed by pearl millet (83.23%), wheat grain (82.04%) and lowest in oats grain (70.44%). IVOMD followed the similar pattern as in IVDMD (%). CH4 production (g/ kg DM incubated) ranged from 6.30 (oats grain) to 12.6 (wheat). Highest methane production (g/kg TDMD and g/kg TOMD) was observed in wheat grain (14.54 and 15.30) and lowest in oats grain (10.10 and 10.62). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keeping horses in mind, six legume and two non legume fodders were evaluated on the basis of CNCPS. The total CHO (%DM) was highest in berseem, moth and groundnut haulm (64.09, 69.1 and 66.81, respectively). CA fraction was highest in mustard (37.42%) and lowest fractions of CB1 and CB2 were found in cowpea straw (6.18%) and mustard (10.59%), whereas, highest fractions of both were found in lucerne (20.96% and 33.29%). The CHO (%DM) of non-legumes ranged from 73.44% (oats) to 70.58% (maize). CB1 fractions (%CHO) ranged from 17.30% (oats) to 22.73% (maize). CB2 fraction (%CHO) ranged from 53.60% in maize to 60.07% (oats). Fraction PA (%CP) was highest in lucerne, groundnut and mustard (17.75, 15.11 and 16.98, respectively) and lowest factions PB2 was found in moth bean straw and groundnut, respectively. PB3 fractions (%CP) were maximum in groundnut haulm (31.80%) and minimum in mustard fodder and lucerne. The PC fraction (%CP) ranged from 8.73% in berseem to 15.21% in groundnut haulm. The PA fraction (%CP) was maximum in maize (25.32%) and minimum in oats (14.19%). The fraction PB1 (%CP) ranged from 7.30% in maize to 25.92% in oats. The PB3 fraction (%CP) was highest in maize (13.09%) and lowest in oats (10.39) and lucerne (15.05 %). The PC fraction (%CP) ranged from 11.12 in oats to 15.47% in maize. In the present study, lucerne can be regarded as superior, as it has higher CP and bypass protein content and lower unavailable protein fraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was compare the gas production and digestibility of ten forages, using rumen liquor and equine faecal liquor as the inoculum sources. The forages were lucerne, sewan hay, hedge lucerne, para grass, moth bean fodder, heteropogon, setaria grass, sugarcane tops, groundnut haulm and paddy straw. The forages were first pretreated with pepsin and amylase for 2 hr and 4 hr, respectively before incubating with equine faecal liquor for 48 hr, while the rumen liquor was directly inoculated with forages for 48 hr. The lowest IVDMD% and IVOMD% for both the species were found in case of paddy straw. The highest amount of net gas production (mM/0.2gDM) was observed in groundnut haulm by the rumen liquor, whereas lucerne produced highest net gas by equine faecal liquor and lowest net gas was recorded in hedge lucerne for both the species. Methane produced as percentage of total gas was highest in hedge lucerne in cattle, whereas lucerne produced highest methane in horses. Methane produced (g/kg DM digested) by the rumen liquor inoculation was found to be highest in lucerne and lowest was observed in moth bean straw, whereas, sugarcane tops produced the highest methane and lowest in hedge lucerne by the equine faecal liquor inoculation. The trial revealed that equines can digest low fibrous forages at par with cattle, while high fibrous forages with 90% efficiency of cattle. Moreover, the methane productions by the horses are about 1/ 3rd of that of cattle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]