Effect of moringa (Moringa oleifera) leaf meal on performance of Murrah buffalo calves

Abstract

The study was designed to evaluate the effect of Moringa oleifera leaf meal on feed intake, growth performance, health status and economics of Murrah buffalo calf rearing. A total of 18 Murrah buffalo calves with similar body weight of either sex at 5th day after birth selected and randomly distributed in three different groups (Control, M5 and M15) with six calves in each group. Control group reared on calf starter/concentrate mixture along with milk. Whereas along with milk calf starter/concentrate mixture was replaced by Moringa oleifera leaf meal @ of 5% and 15% for the groups M5 and M15 respectively. The duration of experiment was six month. Result revealed that the body weight changes, average daily gain, dry matter intake, average daily dry matter intake (% BW), crude protein, Protein efficiency were significantly varied among the groups. Average body weight gains of calf (kg) were 50.05, 58.42 and 60.62 in control, M5 and M15 groups respectively. Economic analysis indicated that the recurring cost of rearing Murrah buffalo calves was reduced in M5 and M15 groups in comparison to the control group. Recurring expenditure of body weight gain (₹/kg) were 322.27, 269.35 and 262.15 in control, M5 and M15, respectively. Reduction of recurring expenditure body weight gain (per/kg) in comparison to control group were 52.93 and 60.13 for the M5 and M15, respectively. Per cent decreases of total recurring expenditure in comparison to control group/kg BW gain were 16.42, 18.66 in group M5 and M15, respectively. It can be concluded that Moringa leaf meal can replace upto 15 per cent of calf starter to attend better body weight gain and improve economic efficiency of Murrah buffalo calf rearing.