Background: Supplementation of urea molasses mineral block (UMMB) showed promising results in improving the nutrient utilization and the productivity of animals. This offers several advantages such as easy transport, storage and handling and reduced risks of poisoning as compared with other approaches, such as giving a small amount of urea in drinking water, sprinkling of urea solution on fibrous feeds before feeding, or urea-ammonization of crop residues. These advantages of solid multi-nutrient blocks (SMB) opened up new vista to enhance productivity in terms of increased milk and meat production and higher reproductive efficiency in ruminant animal species. Keeping the above facts in view, this study was undertaken to determine the effect of feeding solid multinutrient blocks on feed intake, nutrient utilization and haemato-biochemical profile of crossbred calvesMethods: In this study twenty four crossbred male calves of about 14-17 months of age were divided into four groups of six animals in each group. All animals were supplied wheat straw ad lib. In addition, animals in all groups were fed a concentrate mixture to meet out their nutrient requirement. Additionally, 30 % of concentrate mixture (on CP basis) was replaced by solid multi-nutrient blocks (SMB-I), SMB-II and SMB-III in groups T1, T2 and T3, respectively. After 60 days of feeding a metabolism trial of 6 days was conducted to assess the nutrient utilization of animals. Blood samples were collected at 0, 75, 150 day of experimental feeding to determine hematological parameters, enzymes, biochemical parameters and serum mineral concentration.Result: The intake and digestibility of DM, OM, EE, NDF and ADF were comparable among 4 groups. The CP intake was significantly higher in SMB supplemented groups as compared to control but there was no significant difference in CP digestibility among 4 groups. All the animals in four groups were on positive nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus balance. Haematobiochemical parameters like Hb, PCV, glucose, total protein, globulin, A:G, SGOT and SGPT showed non-significant differences (p greater than 0.05) among the groups, however, periodical serum concentrations of albumin, urea and creatinine was higher in crossbred calves at 75 and 150 days of experiment in comparison to 0 day. On basis of present results, it may be concluded that supplementation of SMB can replace 30% crude protein of concentrate mixture without any adverse effect on feed intake, digestibility, nutrient utilization and blood biochemical profile of crossbred calves.

Present study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of zinc supplementation on growth performance and nutrient utilization in kids. Twenty four goat kids (4-6 month age) were randomly divided into 4 groups (T1, T2, T3 and T4) having 6 kids each. Kids in the group T1 were fed basal diet which contained 29.02 mg Zn/kg DM from ingredients of ration without any additional Zn supplementation. Kids in the T2, T3 and T4 groups were fed the same basal diet with additive 20, 50 and 100 ppm Zn (as ZnSO4) in their diets, respectively. The study was conducted for 90 days. Digestion trial of 7 days was conducted towards the end of experiment to assess the digestibility of the nutrients. Results indicated significantly higher average body weight gain, crude protein (CP) digestibility and better feed efficiency in kids fed diet supplemented with 50.0 mg Zn/kg DM. From the results it was concluded that the Zn supplementation @ 50.0 mg/kg DM in basal diet significantly improved body weight (BW) gain, CP digestibility and feed efficiency ratio (FER) of kids.