NUTRIENT REQUIREMENT FOR CATTLE AND

BUFFALOE
• Nutrient requirement is a minimum amount of particular
animal's average requirement of nutrient for a particular
function.
• Whereas the nutrient allowance is greater than the
nutrient.
• Maintenance:
• The maintenance ration is that which takes care of the
needs of animals at rest to carry out the basic essential
processes of life such as breathing and circulation of
blood, without either gain or loss of weight.
• Production:
• Nutrient supplied to the animal over and above its
maintenance requirement is available for production.
(growth, milk production, reproduction and work.)
• Dry matter, Energy, Protein and Water requirement for
different functions.
• The total quantity of dry matter the animal can consume
per day should be known, so that we can compute the
ration in a manner that the entire quantity of the nutrients
required is present in the dry matter, the animal is able to
consume.
• Cattle will generally consume 2.0 to 2.5 kg DM/100 kg body
weight.
• Buffaloes, crossbred animals and heavy yielders consume 2.5 to
3.0 kg DM /100 kg body weight.
• In mid lactation (10-29 weeks) DM intake has to be increased by
1.7 kg/day.
• In late lactation (30 weeks onwards) DM intake has to be
increased by 4.1 kg/day.
• In early lactation, the probable DMI may be up to 18% less than
mid lactation.
DM Requirements of Cattle and Buffaloes
Protein Requirements

• • The protein in practical diet supply some dietary protein that

escapes rumen fermentation.
• This protein plus the microbial protein produced from
supplemental NPN may be enough to produce 20 kg 4%
FCM/day.
• Similarly, the protein in practical diets that meet the CP or DCP
requirements plus energy may be enough to supply enough
amino acids for 700 g growth/day
• 6% FCM (kg)= 0.38 M (kg)+11.54 F (kg)
• 4% FCM (kg) =04 M (kg)+15F(kg)
Protein Requirements
Water requirement

• Water requirements may vary between 30-85kg water for

each kg DM consumed.
• These amounts should be increased approximately by 50
for pregnant animals during the last part of the gestation
period. Lactation requires an additional 0.8kg of water for
each kg of milk produced.
• These amounts are for temperate zone and must be
modified for and and tropical zones.
• Water requirement reported for buffaloes also ranged
between 5.25.55 ltr/kg DMI
• Lactating dairy cows in the tropics require 60 to 70 L of
water per day for maintenance, plus an extra 4 to 5 L for
each litre of milk produced.
• Water requirements rise with air temperature. An
increase of 4°C will increase water requirements by 6 to 7
L/d.
• High yielding milking cows can drink 150 to 200 L water/d
during the hot season.
Mineral requirement:

• The maintenance requirement is more closely related to

feed intake (or metabolic body wt) rather than the body
weight.
• The increased secretion of minerals into gut and the
increased wear and tear on mucosal lining at the high
feed intakes needed to sustain high levels of
performance, want for some extra mineral allowance,
something termed as Productivity Increment in the
maintenance requirement.
• Lactating animals eat more feed per unit of body weight
than the non lactating animal, and therefore, have a
relatively higher maintenance requirement for macro
minerals in comparison to dry animal of similar body
weight.
EXAMPLES
• Calculate the nutrient requirements of weighing 400 kg and
formulate ration for maintenance

maintenance required:
DMI = 67g/kg metabolic body wt
TDN= 37g/kg metabolic body wt
CP = 5.5g/kg metabolic body wt
DCP = 2.84g/kg metabolic body wt
we consider ragistraw and [90,45,4,0] and cowpea [20,63,10,18]
supplement wt DMI TDN CP DCP
ragistraw 4.4 kg 4kg 1.8kg 0.16kg 0
cowpea 7.5kg 1.5kg 0.93kg 0.27kg 0.15
5.5kg 2.73kg 0.43kg 0.15

Inference, 4.4kg of ragistraw and 7.5 kg of cowpea will meet the requirement of animal.
• Calculate the nutrient requirement of a buffalo ighing 500
kg and formulate ration for maintenance
DMI= 62g/ kg metabolic wt
TDN=37g/kg metabolic wt
CP= 5.5g/kg metabolic wt
DCP= 2.8g/kg metabolic wt
we consider ragistraw, paragrass, and cncentrates
 wt[kg] DMI[kg] TDN[kg] CP[kg] DCP[kg]

maintenance 10 3.9 0.58 0.3

supplement
ragistraw 5.5 5 2.25 0.2 0
paragrass 7 2 1.1 0.18 0.03
7 3.35 0.38 0.03
remaining 3 0.56 0.201 0.27

Remaining to be met by concetrates

i.e., Ragistraw=5.5kg
paragrass=10kg
concentrates=3kg
NUTRIENT REQUIREMENT OR PREGNANT AND LACTATING
CATTLE AND BUFPALOE
Energy and protein requirements for lactation

• In practical feeding many factors like level of intake, propotion or concentrate

to roughage and the quality ot roughage, physical form of the ration (grinding
pelleting cte.) will affect the energy requirement.
• The requirement proposed by Sen (19/8) and Ranjan et at (1982, 1991) of
1,188 kcal of ME per kg of 4% fat corrected milk was taken to Calculate the
energy requirement of dairy cattle and buttaloes.
• The requirement of 132 g digestible nitrogen per 10g of milk nitrogen
proposed by Sen (1978) and Ranjhan (1980, 1992) was taken to calculate
the DCP requirement.
TDN requirement

• 330 g TDN/kg fat corrected milk.

• Fat correction of milk (FCM) per Kg is 0.4 + 0.15F, where
F is percentage of fat in milk.
ME requirement

• Gross energy of one Kg of fat corrected millk is 750 kcal of

energy= NE requirement per Kg
• FCM Efficiency of ME of feed to NE for Milk production= 62 %
• ME requirement per Kg FCM= 750 * 100 = 1200 Kcal
62
• Efficiency of conversion of DE to ME = 82 %
• DE requirement per Kg FCM= 1200 x 100 = 1460 Kcal
82
DCP requirement

• .The protein content of milk can be calculated by using

the following formula.
• .Percentage of protein1.9 + 0.4F, where F is percentage
of fat.
EXAMPLES,
calculate the nutrient requirements of a buffaloe
weighing 400kg yielding 15kg of milk per day with 7
percent butter fat.

• Using a calculator,
• Body weight to the power of 3 and press the square root
key twice, you will get the metabolic body weight.
• Eg. 400 x 400 x 400 = √64000000 → √8000 → 89.44
metabolic body wt = 89.44
4% FCM = [0.308 x 15] + [11.58 x 1.05] = 16.79 L of
6%FCM.
MAINTENANCE:
DMI = 62g/ kg metabolic wt = 5.54 kg
TDN = 37g/ kg metabolic wt = 3.04 kg
DCP = 2.84g/ kg metabolic wt = 0.254 kg
CP = 0.491g/ kg metabolic wt = 0.491 kg
• LACTATION:
DMI = 524g/ kg 6% FCM = 8.79 kg
TDN = 406.32g/ kg 6% FCM= 6.81 kg
DCP = 55g/ kg 6% FCM = 0.923kg
CP = 90g/ kg 6% FCM = 1.511kg
EXAMPLES
Calculate the nutrient requirements of cow weighing 300 kg
yielding 10 kg of milk per day with 4 percent butter fat?

Requirement:
Maintenance:
DMI= 67g/kg metabolic wt= 4.829kg
TDN=37g/kg metabolic wt=2.66kg
CP= 2.84g/kg metabolic wt=0.396kg
DCP=5.5g/kg metabolic wt=0.204kg
• lactation
DMI= 450g/kg 4 percent FCM=4.5kg
TDN=325g/kg 4 percent FCM=3.25kg
CP= 90g/kg 4 percent FCM=0.27kg
DCP=57g/kg 4 percent FCM=0.9kg