Feeding value of millet harvested as silage or hay fed to buffalo calves supplemented with concentrate on growth performance and nutrient digestibility

Growth and digestion trials were conducted to evaluate the feeding value of forage millet (pennisetum glaucum) harvested for silage or hay at milky stage (31% dm) on buffalo calves supplemented with mixed concentrate. millet silage (ms) or millet hay (mh) offered ad libitum to twelve nili-ravi buffalo calves (about 10-12 months old and 157±7.20 kg average bw) as 6 calves on each diet. all calves were also supplemented concentrate (cp=15% and tdn=67%) individually at 1% of their bw. the growth trial lasted for 90 days. daily feed intake and fortnightly weights were recorded. the digestibility and nitrogen (n) balance trial was carried out after the end of the growth trial. total faeces,urine and feed samples were measured daily. average daily weight gain (0.69 vs. 0.65 kg/head) and fcr (6.22 vs. 7.21 kg/kg) was significantly (p<0.05) better in calves fed ms than did calves fed mh,respectively. intakes of dry matter (dm),crude protein (cp),crude fiber (cf),neutral detergent fiber (ndf) and acid detergent fiber (adf) were statistically similar (p>0.05) on both dietary treatments. total apparent digestibility of dm was not affected by ms or mh,while the digestibility of cp (67.05 vs. 61.82%),ndf (64.97 vs. 60.25%) and adf (59.66 vs. 52.66%) was higher (p<0.05) in calves fed ms than those fed mh based diet. the n intake or n retention was not affected (p>0.05) by feeding of ms or mh. calves drank less (p<0.05) water when eating ms based diet compared to mh. the economic return value (ratio of output to input) was better (1.23 vs. 1.13) with ms compared to mh fed as basal diet. these results suggest that millet silage when compared with millet hay is best for higher performance and nutrients digestibility in buffalo calves and finally higher economic return.