Effect of Dietary Concentrate to Roughage Ratio on Nutrient Digestibility, Rumen Fermentation, Growth Performance and Serum Acute Phase Protein in Growing Buffalo Calves

Abstract

his study was accomplished to designed to assess the appropriate concentrate: roughage ratio (C:R) ratio for better nutrient digestibility, rumen fermentation patterns, healthy and economic beef production in Egyptian buffalo calves. Sixteen buffalo calves aged about 18-20 months of 292.5±4.7 kg average body weight were randomly assigned into four groups of 4 animals each. The treatment diets were composed of four concentrate: roughage (

Growth Performance of Buffalo Calves in Response to Different Diets with and without Saccharomyces cerevisiae Supplementation

“…Despite that, in this trial, an improvement of buffaloes' growth performance was observed in the groups fed on the diets characterized by high energy values and a lower forage/concentrate ratio. This result is in agreement with those of Abdel Raheem et al [37], who compared four different diets characterized by F:C ratios of 80:20, 75:25, 60:40, and 55:45. These authors found an increase in dry matter intake, daily weight gain, and final body weight by increasing the concentrate percentage in the diet.…”