Effect of feeding hydroponics maize fodder replacing maize of concentrate mixture partially on digestibility of nutrients and milk production in lactating cows

An experiment was conducted to find out the effect of feeding hydroponics maize fodder by replacing maize of concentrate mixture partially on digestibility of nutrients and milk production in lactating cows. Lactating cows (6) (avg. BW 437 kg, avg. milk yield 8.57 kg) were divided into 2 equal groups i.e. Maize Grain Group (MGG) and Hydroponics Maize Fodder Group (HMFG) based on their body weight and milk yield. Two types of concentrate mixture (CMmaize 100 or CMmaize 50) were prepared. CMmaize 100 contained maize grain 35, rice polish 35, soybean meal 27, mineral mixture 2 and common salt 1 parts by weight. In CMmaize 50, 50% of the maize of CMmaize 100 was replaced partially and it contained maize grain 17.5, rice polish 54, soybean meal 25.5, mineral mixture 2 and common salt 1 parts by weight. Randomly, animals of MGG and HMFG were offered 6 kg CMmaize 100 and CMmaize 50, respectively along with 10 kg fresh conventional green fodder (napier bajra hybrid, CO-3) and ad lib. jowar straw. Besides, animals of the HMFG were offered five kg fresh HMF, sprouted from approximately one kg maize, which has been withdrawn from 6 kg concentrate mixture. The experiment was conducted for a period of 45 days. The fresh yield of the HMF from one kg maize seed was 5–6 kg with 12.39% DM content. Feeding of HMF by replacing the maize grain of the concentrate mixture had not altered the DM intake (11.20 vs 11.52 kg/day) and roughage: concentrate ratio (51:49 vs 52:48) of the animals. There was nonsignificant increase in the digestibility of nutrients, nutritive value, milk yield (7.97 vs 8.59 kg/day), 4.0% FCM (8.25 vs 9.31 kg/day), and fat (%) (4.20 vs 4.50) in HMFG than the MGG. The feed conversion ratio (FCR) in terms of DM (1.51 vs 1.40), CP (0.19 vs 0.18) and TDN (1.03 vs 0.96) was better in the HMFG than the MGG. It can be concluded that hydroponics maize fodder can be fed to the lactating cows by replacing maize of the concentrate mixture partially with improvement in the performance of the animals.