The effectiveness of forage and balanced concentrate feeding on the nutritional values and performance of buffaloes

Abstract

This study is aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of forage and balanced concentrate in diet or nutritional contents and nutrient digestibilities of feed, feed consumption, an average daily gain, and feed efficiency in buffaloes. This study used a completely randomized design with 4 replicates. The diet treatments were: (R1), 100% native grass, (R2), 70% native grass + 30% concentrate. (R3), 60% native grass + 40% concentrate (R4) 50%
native grass + 50% concentrate. The experimental results showed that the amount of concentrates, significantly affected (P<0.05) the contents of dry matter, organic matter, and crude fiber. However, the crude protein, crude fats, digestibilityies of dry matter and organic matter of the contents were not significantly affected P<0.05). It could be concluded that the addition of concentrated ration to buffaloes provides better productivity than field
grass, with the best treatment being the R2.