REPLACING CORN GRAINS WITH VARYING LEVELS OF CANE MOLASSES: POST WEANING INTAKE, GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND STRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF NILI RAVI BUFFALO (BUBALUS BUBALIS) FEMALE CALVES.

Sugar cane molasses (SCM) is an easily available and a cheaper source of energy for livestock. Aim of this experiment was to evaluate the inclusion level of SCM in concentrate diet during post weaning period and its effect on feed intake, growth performance, structural measurements, feed efficiency (FE) and cost per unit gain in Nili Ravi female buffalo calves. A total of n=18, 90 ± 3 days old, weaned Nili Ravi buffalo female calves weighing 69 ± 3.57 kg were randomly assigned to one of the three concentrate treatments (n=6 calves/treatment): 1) low molasses (LM) containing 4% SCM, 2) medium molasses (MM) containing 12% SCM, 3) and high molasses (HM) containing 20% SCM on DM basis. Calves were given an adaptability period of 14 days and then shifted to treatment diets with a forage to concentrate ratio of 40:60 on DM basis. Duration of data collection was 98 days. Diets were iso-nitrogenous, iso-caloric and fed at 3% of weekly BW and orts were collected daily. Animals were weighed at the start and then on bi-weekly basis. Whereas, body measurement: wither height (WH), heart girth (HG) and hip width (HW) were measured at start and afterwards on fortnightly basis. The results revealed that increasing level of SCM had no influence (P > 0.05) on ADG, WH, HG and HW. Similarly, average daily DMI was not affected (P > 0.05) by increasing the level of SCM in the diet. However, feed efficiency and the cost per unit gain was lower (P < 0.05) in the HM compared to the calves fed on the LM and MM based diets. In conclusion, similar growth performance, improved feed efficiency and low cost per unit gain suggest that SCM can be included up to 20% in the concentrate feed of weaned buffalo female calves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]