Nine buffalo calves were subjected to three fodder tree species namely; Nimaro (Ficus roxburghii), Dhalne Katus (Castanopsis indica) and Rai Khanyu (Ficus cunia) for digestibility trial during November 27 and December 3, 2005 in Regional Agricultural Research Station, Lumle, Kaski, Nepal. Animals were kept 7 days for adaptation for these fodders. Weighed   amount of fodder tree leaves including twigs and small branches were fed   two times a day and observation on fodder offered, refused and faeces voided   were recorded daily. Chemical composition of fresh matter and faeces voided   were carried out for dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), lignin, calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P). The mean DM content and their dry matter digestibility (DMD) of these three fodder tree species were found 27.86, 46.02, 34.72, 73.21, 65.93 and 71.28 percent, respectively. Strong negative correlations   (r=-0.75 to –0.78; p<0.05) were observed between Ca and CP with fiber fraction (NDF and ADF). A weak correlation was also observed between P and other constituents with respect to digestibility. From the results, if there   could be provision of low fiber content in dry season, the three main nutrients (Ca, P and CP) may easily be absorbed by the animals.Nepal Agric. Res. J. Vol. 9, 2009, pp. 94-98DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/narj.v9i0.11646

The mortality of kid's is serious problem in commercial goat farming in Nepal. There are various factors which affect the growth rate and mortality of kids. One of the main factors is rearing management during early age of kids but more research focused on feeding and treatment only. So an experiment was carried out to reveal the effect of brooding management system for growth and mortality of kids in goat at National Goat Research Program, Bandipur, Tanahun of Nepal from October 2020 to February 2021. All together 96 newly born goat's kids were included in this experiment from three pure breeds which were born late October to early November 2020. Among them 32 kids of each breeds of pure Khari, pure Barbari and pure Boer were maintained which were divided in to two equal groups. One group was reared with their mother in normal shed where no any bedding material and extra heating mechanism was provided and another group was reared in well bedded shed and two brooders was provided. Data of birth weight, one month to four months weight of every kids, monthly weight gain and number of death kids were recorded and data were analyzed using IBM SPSS 26. This result showed that breeds, sex and management of rearing system affect significantly (p<0.01) for the growth and mortality of kids in goat. The body weight of pure Barbari and pure Khari was similar but it was higher in pure Boer. Similarly, the kids which reared under brooding management were more body weight than those reared in nonbrooding condition. The body weight gain of kids from one to two months, two to three months and three to four months under non-brooding condition was 92, 78, 77 and 74 gm/d whereas it was found 168, 129, 123 and 120 gm/d respectively in brooding management. Similarly, the mortality of kids was found 4.17 percent under brooding management whereas it became 35.42 percent in non-brooding condition.

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the inclusion effects of Dried Brewery Spent Grain (DBSG) to know its effect on growth performance and meat quality on poultry. Completely randomized design was used to compare the treatments in five replications. The treatments used were 15% DBSG (T1), 20% DBSG (T2), 25% DBSG (T3), Commercial feed (T4) and (0% DBSG) scavenging bird was used as a control. Each treatment contained 10 birds including 200 chickens in the whole investigation. The major factors body weight, carcasses and organs weight, cholesterol, total protein, albumin, and calcium were evaluated. Results showed that mean body weight of the experimental bird after 60 days was not significantly different (p>0.05) among the dietary treatments, i.e., T1 (781.46 g), T2 (738.36 g), T3 (728.91 g) and T4 (753.38 g). Carcass, breast muscle, thigh, wing, shank, liver and spleen were not significantly different (p>0.05) in weight between DBSG included diet and commercial feed. However, dressing percentage (59.3%) of T4 and gizzard (43.20 gm.) in T3 was significantly higher than other treatments. The significantly higher (p<0.05) amount of cholesterol found in T4 (312.01 mg/dl) followed by control diet (239.46 mg/dl), both of which were above than reference range (129-297 mg/dl). However, in other treatments i.e., T1, T2 and T3, the cholesterol content was in between the reference range. Similarly, same level (p>0.05) of total protein, albumin and calcium content in blood serum observed in BSG included diet and commercial diet. Hence, 15% to 20% inclusion of BSG could be the optimum level in diets of New Hampshire chickens.

A study was conducted to evaluate the comparative performance of four different lines of New Hampshire (NH) poultry breed collected from different governmental farms of Pokhara, Parwanipur, Khajura and Khumaltar, Nepal. The study was undertaken for seven months from March to September 2020. The study included 160 chicks with 20 male and 20 female from each line. The experiment was conducted in a Completely Randomized Design with four treatments of different lines and eight replications. The results showed that the highest average weight of day-old chicks was found for Khumaltar line and the lowest for Pokhara line (p<0.001). Similarly, the highest fourth week’s weight was found 237.50±16.88 g in Khajura line and the lowest 191.60±26.53 g in Parwanipur line. In case of eight weeks weight, both male and female was the highest in Khajura line, which were 0.72±0.12 kg and 0.52±0.07 kg, respectively. At that stage, the male weight was significant (p<0.001) but non-significant (p>0.05) in female. Similar pattern was found in twelve and sixteen weeks, but the weight of both sex was significant (p<0.001) at twenty and twenty-four weeks. At the final measurement in 24 weeks, the male and female weight was the highest in Khajura line and the lowest in Parwanipur line. The weight of both sexes of Pokhara and Khumaltar lines were similar. Khajura line was better than other lines indicating that this line is more appropriate be used for further improvement of the NH lines of the country.

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