Changes in lactation performance in response to corn grains processing, starch and fiber levels in Nili Ravi buffaloes

Water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is the second most important dairy animal. Its milk is enriched with health beneficial fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. The higher milk fat, protein and lactose contents made it more attractive to the consumers. Buffalo milk is liked to be used for making its cheese, butter, ghee, and ice- cream due to its lower water contents. Nili Ravi is the most popular buffalo breed in Pakistan and its share is 68% in total milk production through 44 million heads.  Buffaloes are generally fed with available seasonal fodder along with wheat or rice straws. These feedstuffs contain low contents of protein and energy leading to suboptimal milk production. Energy is the major limiting factor affecting the productivity of our local dairy animals. Increasing energy supplies through cereal grains or fat supplementation can be effective mechanisms to improve milk production. Corn grain is the prime feed energy source in the ruminant livestock industry and its primary constituent is starch. Approximately 75% of the corn grain energy value is derived from starch thus, improving starch availability and utilization may improve lactation performance. Processing of grain has been used as a tool to increase ruminal starch availability. One of the conventional methods of processing is grinding. Other component provides energy is fiber. Fiber in the ruminant’s diets helps in chewing, regurgitation, salivation, maintaining rumen health and pH. Most of the fiber comes from forages. So, it is vital to study and explore different aspects of the carbohydrate fraction (Starch and fiber) diets of livestock and their optimal utilization in milk producing buffaloes.

The buffaloes undergo various physical, physiological, metabolic, and hormonal changes during lactation, gestation, and dry period. In most cases, the breeders fail to adapt the changes in dietary requirements of the lactating Nili Ravi buffaloes. The lack of inappropriate feeding strategies in early lactation is often reflected as decrease in feed intake which leads to lower productive performance and economic losses to the farmers. This situation necessitates to move for precision nutrition. Very little is known regarding the specific dietary needs of early lactating buffaloes. Keeping in view these issues, a study was, therefore, conducted under the kind supervision of Professor Dr. Saima, Animal Nutrition department, UVAS, Ravi Campus Pattoki and performed two experiments for two years to find out the impact of different starch, fiber levels and grinding size of corn diets during early lactation on the performance of buffaloes. The findings of these studies revealed that the high starch level diets with coarse or fine ground corn and low fiber diets improved the performance of buffaloes in early lactation. The optimum level of starch and fiber in lactating buffalo diet were determined as 25% and 39% respectively.  Our findings suggest that best quality feed enriched with energy should be offered to buffaloes during early lactation.