Chelated mineral supplement for boosting milk production

Abstract

India being an agrarian country has a wide agricultural base complemented by an ever-expanding livestock sector which contributes 4.11% of total GDP and 25.6% of total agricultural GDP. As the ownership of livestock is more evenly distributed with landless labourers and marginal farmers, the progress in this sector will result in a more balanced development of the rural economy. So, it is quite imperative to boost this sector especially when it determines livelihood of millions of people. Increase in milk production and its sustainability are associated with both genetic and nutritional improvement factors. Chelated supplements are helps in enhance milk production. The effect of supplementing chelated minerals (fedamin) manufactured by ‘Guybro chemicals’ with the concentrate mixture was evaluated in terms of milk production, composition & mineral status of the animals on lactating ‘Sahiwal’ & ‘Haryana’ cows at ‘Gowshala’ Dairy farm, BHU, Varanasi. 1st group were put on control feeding, i.e. fed concentrate mixture without chelated minerals. The 2nd & 3rd group were given 50g (25+25 g morning & evening) & 75g (37.5+37.5 g morning & evening) of chelated mineral supplement/ head/ day respectively (fedamin). The chelated minerals were fed to the animals with concentrate mixture during milking time (Morning & Evening). The observations were recorded for 21 days. The milk composition was checked in Department of Animal Husbandry & dairying lab by ‘Ekomilk’ machine.It was concluded that the inclusion of amino acid chelates in the feed of lactating cows show statistically and economically significant positive effect such as 15-16 % increase in milk production when fed at the rate of 25 g/day.