Mineral interrelationship among soil, forage and dairy cattle in temperate sub- alpine zone of Mizoram

Abstract

The present experiment was conducted to study the soil, plant, animal interrelationship in the temperate sub-alpine zone of Mizoram. Soil, fodder, concentrate feed, milk and serum of lactating cows were collected from different blocks of temperate sub-alpine zone of Mizoram. The samples were digested for mineral estimation in a Microwave digester and analyzed by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The soil mineral status showed that Mg, Cu, Fe, Mn and Co were above the critical level and the differences between different blocks of the said zone were significant (p<0.01). The Ca content of concentrate feed showed lower value as well as P and Zn content in the fodder showed lower value than the critical level. The macro and micro mineral content of serum of dairy cattle in the study area were lower than the critical level except Fe, Zn, Mn and Co. Cu and Zn showed significant differences(P< 0.01) among different blocks. Correlation values between soilfodder showed highly significant (p<0.01) positive correlation for Mn, and significant (p<0.05) positive correlation for Co. Fodder-cattle correlation was positive except for Fe where negative correlation was observed and soil-cattle showed positive correlation except for P and Cu. Equations were developed in the present study for prediction of all the minerals based on status of minerals in soil, fodder and cattle. It can be concluded that dairy cattle in temperate sub-alpine zone of Mizoram showed deficiency in most of the minerals and supplementation of area specific mineral mixture is essential for optimum production.