Effect of feeding micro-nutrient fertilized oat hay based diets on nutrient utilization and mineral balance in growing lambs

Abstract

Micro-nutrient deficiency in soil leads to inadequate availability of minerals in plant and animals. Thus, agronomic amendments have been advocated as shortterm strategy for correction of this micro-nutrient deficiency in forages as well as in animals. To study the effect of feeding micro-nutrient enriched oat hay-based diet on nutrient intake and its utilization in lambs, twelve growing Jalauni male lambs (weighing 22.81±1.08 kg) were randomly divided into 2 groups of 6 animals in each. The lambs of control group (G1 ) were fed on NPK fertilized chaffed oat hay adlib along with crushed barley grain (150 g/d/head) based ration, while the lambs of group G2 were offered NPK+ fifty percent recommended dose of micronutrients (Zn, Mn and Cu 10, 5 and 2.5 kg/ha) + seed priming in 0.05% solution of ZnSO4 for12 hours + VAM inoculated chaffed oat hay along with barley grain (150 g/d/head) for a period of 28 days. Micro-nutrient (Cu, Zn and Mn) application improved mineral content (ppm) in oat hay: Cu (7.88 vs 10.86), Zn (28.56 vs 34.22) and Mn (65.42 vs 83.70). The additional mineral supplementation through micronutrient enriched oat hay had no effect on DM intake in lambs. Similarly, the intakes of DCP, TDN and digestibility of DM, CP, NDF and ADF were also comparable between the groups. However, micronutrient (Zn, Cu and Mn) supplementation through fodder oat enhanced the mineral retention (Zn: 2.94 vs 4.47 mg/d; Cu: 0.46 vs 0.69 mg/d and Mn: 4.16 vs 5.83 mg/d) and absorption co-efficient was higher (P<0.05) in G2 except for Mn which was non-significant . The apparent absorption and retention of N was positive and comparable between the groups. Thus, it was concluded that micronutrient (Cu, Zn and Mn) application to fodder oat improved the mineral content in the fodder and feeding of micronutrient fortified oat hay based diet improved the intake and retention of micro minerals significantly (P<0.05) without affecting nutrient intake and utilization in growing Jalauni lambs.