Original Articles: 2013 Vol: 5 Issue: 10
Evaluation of mineral supplement prepared from limestone waste
Abstract
An experiment was conducted to evaluate mineral supplement prepared using limestone waste. Limestone waste (dust) available was collected from industries processing Lime. It was sieved with mesh size upto 1 mm and the material was used as source of Calcium for preparation of the mineral supplement. A total of 121.98 kg of mineral supplement was prepared for the feeding trial.Milch animals of similar parity (3-4) were selected from the field area in Bikaner district and supplemented with mineral supplement. The animals were milked twice a day, during morning and evening after interval of 12 hours. In the first phase 8 animals (2 each owned by each farmer) were divided into two groups of 4 each. All the animals were provided a mixed diet of wheat straw and groundnut fodder (1:1) along with Cottonseed cake 5 kg which was soaked in water for 3-4 hours before mixing with equal quantity of dry fodder (wheat straw and groundnut fodder). One animal of each farmer was offered mineral supplement and the other served as control. In the first phase mineral supplement was offered in the treatment group (along with the concentrate) for a period of 56 days. Observations on milk production were recorded daily during the period. The study was continued in second phase with one animal to observe long term effect of the supplement for which one cow was provided mineral supplement for a period of 150 days. Since all the animals were not similar in milk production, fixed quantity of 50g/h/d was given in two equal doses of 25g each. Data reflected that 51.1% of milk was produced during morning and 48.9% during evening milking. Feeding of supplement had a significant effect on milk production per cow. Milk production was sustained at an higher level due to feeding of mineral supplement which otherwise would have decreased due to higher demand of Ca and P for milk secretion. It could be concluded from the studies that cheaper source of Calcium as limestone dust could be used effectively for preparation of mineral supplement. Feeding of mineral supplement containing Lime stone dust did not have any negative effect on animal health. Its feeding consistently improved milk production and sustained it for a long period in cattle. Thus limestone waste could serve as a useful ingredient for production of mineral waste for livestock. Milk production was similar at the start of experiment. Differences in milk production were observed which increased gap among the groups. Significantly higher (P≤0.01) milk production was observed in animals supplemented with mineral mixture. Week had a significant effect on milk production per cow. Milk production was sustained at a higher level due to feeding of mineral supplement which otherwise would have decreased due to higher demand of Ca and P for milk secretion. Data reflected that 51.1% of milk was produced during morning and 48.9% during evening milking. To study the long term effect of mineral supplementation observations on milk production were recorded for nearly 150 days with one farmer. It was observed that milk production follows a zig zag curve. Considering that the management factors were optimized, results on long term feeding of supplement containing lime stone waste indicated that milk production could be sustained for a long period as it dropped slowly to a tune of 0.006kg/d after obtaining peak, thus reflecting that it had positive effect.