Effect of management system on nutrient intake and seminal attributes in jamunapari bucks

Abstract

The present study assessed comparative semen production potential of Jamunapari bucks under stall feeding (SF) and grazing cum supplementation (GS) systems of 10 animals in each system under group feeding and management conditions. SF Bucks received 500 g concentrate pellets and 700 g green fodder/h/d besides ad lib dry fodder for continuous one year. GS Bucks were allowed 4-6 hr daily grazing and supplemented concentrate pellets @ 500 g/h/d. Intake of nutrients by bucks in two groups were calculated, semen were collected using AV method biweekly to assess seminal traits. The apparent digestibility coefficients of dry matter, crude protein and hemi cellulose were higher in feed materials consumed by GS bucks than SF bucks. However, neutral detergent fibre, acid detergent fibre and cellulose digestibility had shown a reverse trend. The overall Least Square Mean (LSM) for intake of DM, OM, CP, NDF, ADF, hemicellulose, cellulose, ME install-fed bucks were 1309. 38, 1190.62, 176.99, 728.72, 410.08, 306.11, 266.09 g/day, 7.76 MJ/d, respectively. The respective nutrients intake in GS bucks were 1396.14, 1259.67, 198.87, 685.24, 367.99, 335.99, 211.23 g/day, 8.21MJ/d. LSM for volume (ml), color (1-2 scale), consistency (1-4 scale), mass activity (0-5 scale), initial progressive motility (%), sperm density(10 6 /ml), live sperms (%) and abnormal sperms (%) of semen produced by SF bucks were 0.92, 1.19, 2.86, 4.30, 78.21, 4317.41, 82.96, and 1.77, respectively. The respective values for the semen of GS bucks were 0.69, 1.24, 2.67, 3.64, 72.78, 3183.14, 74.87 and 2.18.Analysis of data revealed that SF bucks performed better (P<0.01) with lower nutrients intake than the GS bucks.