PERFORMANCE OF MURRAH BUFFALOES FED SUNFLOWER HEADS BASED COMPLETE DIETS IN TERMS OF NUTRIENT UTILIZATION AND RUMEN FERMENTATION PATTERN

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of feeding expander extruder processed sunflower head (SFH) based complete diets incorporated at 40 and 50% and compared with conventional ration (concentrate mixture to meet protein requirements for maintenance and ad lib sorghum straw). These three rations were fed to fistulated buffaloes in a 3 x 3 Latin square design. A 6d metabolic trial was conducted each time after a preliminary feeding period of 21 days and rumen liquor was collected after each trial for 3 consecutive days, 5 times a day, before feeding (0 h) and at 2 h intervals after feeding (2, 4, 6 and 8 h) to assess nutrient utilization and rumen fermentation pattern. The organic matter, crude protein, ether extract, crude fibre, acid detergent fibre and cellulose (P<0.05) digestibilities were higher (P<0.01) in animals fed either of the complete diets compared to conventional feeding. The buffaloes fed the 40% SFH diet digested higher (P<0.01) dry matter, energy and neutral detergent fibre (P<0.05) compared to the conventional group. The calcium balance was comparable, while phosphorus (P<0.01) and nitrogen (P<0.05) balances were higher on the 40% SFH diet compared to the conventional diet and intermediate on the 50% SFH diet. The ruminal pH was lower (P<0.01), while total volatile fatty acids, total nitrogen and TCA precipitable nitrogen was higher (P<0.01) with the SFH diets than the conventional diet. The ammonia nitrogen was higher in the 40% SFH diet fed animals compared to the other two diets. The results of this study indicated that SFH could form a roughage source for ruminants by incorporating in an expander extruder processed complete diet at either the 40 or 50% level. Out of these two complete diets, the expander extruder processed complete diet containing 40% SFH proved better in terms of nutrient utilization and rumen fermentation pattern.