Aquatic fern Azolla affecting milk production in buffaloes

Abstract

A feeding trial was conducted to assess the effect of incorporating dried green aquatic fern Azolla (Azolla microphylla) in the diet of lactating Murrah buffaloes. Ten multiparous Murrah buffaloes with an average body weight of 499.34±20.71 kg, parity of 2.4±0.31, average milk yield of 11.29±0.51 kg and average days in milk 30.40±3.86 were distributed randomly into two equal groups. One of the groups served as control and fed concentrate mixture prepared by Wheat bran, Maize grain, Mustard cake, Cotton seed cake, Groundnut cake, mineral mixture, and salt, while in treatment group 10% of the dried Azolla was incorporated in the concentrate mixture to make both the concentrate mixtures iso-nitrogenous and iso-caloric. Milk quantity was recorded and milk components including protein, fat, lactose, solids not fat and total solids were assessed at the day before starting experimental feeding and followed by a weekly interval for four week.After 28 days of experimental feeding no significant (P>0.05) effect was apparent on total milk production, but fall in production of fat corrected milk was 23.54% in the control group as compared to only 8.24% in the Treatment group, which indicated the superiority of Azolla based concentrate mixture over control concentrate mixture. No significant (P>0.05) variation was also observed in the quality of milk produced including milk protein, fat, lactose, solids not fat and total solids between the milk of buffaloes fed with two different concentrate mixtures. Results indicated that feeding of concentrate mixture consisting of 10% dried Azolla helped to maintain the production of fat corrected milk in early lactating Murrah buffaloes without affecting the intake of nutrients.