Milk production and composition in crossbred cows fed calcium salts of mustard oil fatty acids Mishra Siddhartha, Thakur S.S., Raikwar Rakesh Dairy Cattle Nutrition Division, National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal-132001, India Abstract The effect of supplementing calcium salts of mustard oil fatty acids and heat-treated crushed mustard seeds was investigated in milch crossbred cows on milk yield and its composition. Twelve multipa-rous crossbred cows (360±6.5 kg BW) producing 6.5 ± 0.3 kg milk/d, 100 days in lactation, were divided into 3 groups of four animals each. Cows of control group were fed wheat straw and berseem along with concentrate I; those of group II and III were fed same roughage along with concentrate II and III containing Ca salts of mustard oil and heat-treated crushed mustard seeds, respectively to provide 4% supplemental fat of ration for 120 days. DMI (kg/d) was 9.19, 9.58 in group I and III and increase (P<0.05) of 10.99 and 6.4% was observed in group II over that of group I and III. Similarly, milk yield (kg/d) was 6.36 & 6.22 and increase (P<0.05) of 7.08% over group I and 9.48% over group III was recorded in group II cows. Milk total solids contents were 11.71% in group I and increase (P<0.05) of 7.08 and 9.48% was observed in group II & III respectively. Significant increase (p<0.05) in fat, FCM and SNF content (%) was observed in group II and III over that of group I. The proportion of C10.0, C12.0, C14.0, C15.0 and C16.0 fatty acids in milk fat decreased whereas that of C18.1, C18.2, C18.3 increased significantly (P<0.05) in group II. The results of the present study indicated the usefulness of supplementing protected fat in the diet of crossbred milch cows. Top Keywords Ca salts of fatty acids, Mustard oil, Roasted mustard seeds, Fatty acid profile, milk, cows. Top |