Effect of feeding apple pomace on milk yield and milk composition in crossbred (Red Sindhi x Jersey) cow

S P Tiwari, M P Narang* and M Dubey

Department of Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Durg - 491 001 (Chhattisgarh), India
drsptiwari@gmail.com
*Department of Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, H.P.K.V, Palampur (H.P) India

Abstract

The experiment was carried out to study the effect of feeding apple pomace on milk yield and milk composition in crossbred (Red Sindhi X Jersey) cows. Sixteen Red Sindhi X Jersey crossbred cows in second lactation were selected and equally divided into two groups A and B of 8 animals in each. Feeding trial was lasted for 300 days from the 10^th day of calving. Group A was fed with concentrate mixture without apple pomace having maize 35%, peanut 31%, wheat bran 31%, mineral  mixture 2% and common salt 1%. Group B was fed with a concentrate mixture with apple pomace having maize 23%, apple pomace 12%, peanut 35%, wheat bran 27%, mineral mixture 2% and common salt 1% substituting maize to the extend of 33%. Concentrate mixture was fortified with Vitablend at the rate of 20g/100kg as a source of vitamin AB₂D₃. Animals were fed as per as requirement. Milk samples of both groups were analyzed for fat, solid not fat (SNF) and protein.

The average milk production in group A and B were found as 7.58 and 7.56 kg/d respectively. The total milk production in lactation period of 300 d in group A and B were 2274.55 and 2265.27 kg respectively. The maximum milk production was obtained during the third month of lactation in both the groups, A (11.14 kg/d) and B (11.59 kg/d). Data showed no significant effect in milk production of animal fed with or without apple pomace. Both groups attained peak yield at same period of lactation (61-90d). There was no significant change in fat % of milk. However, SNF level was comparatively higher in apple pomace fed group. The protein content of milk was comparable.

This indicated that maize can safely be replaced to the extent of 33% by apple pomace in the dairy ration. Apple grown areas where there is abundance availability of such feeding material can be used in the diet of lactating animals for the cost effective milk production.

Key Words: apple pomace, milk composition, milk production, peak yield

Introduction

Himachal Pradesh is an apple growing state with an annual production of about 200000 tons apple. About 30% of second grade apple is used for the processing of juice extraction in plant. The left over apple pomace as a waste of industry is made available to the tune of about 3030 metric tons in 4-6 months (August to November) every year. In fact, whole of the apple pomace goes waste and unutilized. It contains higher level of fibre (20.50%) but substantial amount of fermentable carbohydrates, which increases its utility for the feeding of livestock. Earlier experiment (Tiwari et al 1994) showed that it is being rich source of energy can replace the starchy ingredients like maize to the extent of 33% in a ration of dairy calves.  It contains high level of moisture, which can be evaporated by sun drying reducing to 10-15% for its inclusion in the ration. Apple pomace contained 4.72% crude protein (CP), 20.50% crude fibre, 3.22% ether extract, 2.60% ash and 68.96% nitrogen free extract (NFE). The potential digestibility of nitrogen free extract (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and hemi cellulose were found to be 74.90%, 71.33% and 85.42% respectively. Earlier reports (Tiwari et al 1994) showed that inclusion of apple pomace make the dairy ration economical and cost effective. The experiment was designed to study the effect of supplementing apple pomace in the dairy ration on milk yield and milk constituents.  The information as such is very scanty in such animals and therefore such trial was conducted.

Materials and methods 

Sixteen cross bred (Red Sindhi X Jersey) milk cows in their 2^nd to 5^th lactation were selected from the dairy herd of the university on their day of calving and the experiment initiated from day 10^th of lactation. They were allotted on the basis of milk yield in to two groups I and II, so that the average initial milk in the two groups were similar. All the animals were fed oats and concentrate mixture throughout the period of one year of study to meet nutrient requirement (NRC 1981) calculated on individual cow basis and fortnightly milk yield. The estimated proximate composition of oat fodder was 8.07% CP, 25.81% CF, 53.87% NFE, 2.1% EE and 10.15% total ash. The concentrated mixture was formulated using maize 35%, peanut cake (deoiled) 31%, wheat bran 31%, mineral mixture 2%, and salt 1%. Vitamin AB₂D₃ (20g/100kg) was mixed in the concentrate mixture to meet vitamin requirements. However, in the concentrate mixture fed to the cows of group II replacing maize to the extent of 33% by the apple pomace and presented in table 1 .

The concentrate mixture contained 18.96% CP, 15.46% DCP and 71.3% TDN which were estimated from proximate composition. Concentrate and fodder intakes were recorded once a week to calculate feed efficiency. The milk yield of each cow was recorded daily twice a day for the whole lactation.

The feed ingredient composition of concentrate mixture is given in table 2.

The sample of milk were collected following standard sampling techniques and subjected to chemical analysis for fat, SNF and protein. The data were analysed statistically following “Independent Fischer^’s t-test” in order to test the significance (Snedecor and Cochran 1967). The observations pertaining to different mensurations were not noted.

Results and discussion 

Apple pomace is considered to be the waste material obtained from apple after extracting juice. It contained 4.72% crude protein, 20.50% crude fibre, 3.22% ether extract, 2.60% ash and 68.96% soluble carbohydrates in the form of NFE. Due to presence of ample quantity of soluble carbohydrate it could be used in the dairy ration especially in lactating animals (Tiwari et al 1994). An effort has been made to replace the maize from the concentrate dairy mixture to the tune of 33% based on earlier reports on dairy calves, without any adverse effect either on milk yield or milk constituents. The compositions of dairy mixture with and without apple pomace have been given in Tables 3 and 4.

In spite of a higher level of crude fibre in apple pomace it contributed readily available source of energy due to presence of soluble carbohydrate which increased the productivity of milk almost at par with the control (2274.55 kg Vs 2265.27kg). It was very interesting to note that the constituents of milk were not affected much due to dietary change. The milk yields of crossbred cows (RS x J) have been presented in table 5 and graphically represented in figure 1.

The peak yield (11.14 kg/d Vs 11.59 kg/d) was obtained during the second trimester (61-90 days) in both the groups without any adverse effect in the diet. It was sustained for a period of about 30 days in both the groups. Thereafter it followed a decline trend that was more pronounced after 210 days of lactation and came down to almost 2 kg/d at the termination of lactation. The over all lactation yield was averaged to 2265 Vs 2275 kg in group I as against in group II. No significance difference (P>0.05) was obtained between the groups with regards to over all milk production due to incorporation of apple pomace. The effect of feeding apple pomace on milk constituents viz. fat, SNF and protein have been presented in table 6 and in figure 2.

 Milk fat content varied from 3.98 to 4.43% in group I as against 3.91 to 4.48% in group II. There was little variation in milk fat content but the variation was statistically non significant. The milk fat content was comparatively higher (4.08%) during early lactation (0-60 days) and late lactation (180 days onward) i.e. 4.38 to 4.43% as compared to mid lactation (3.98%) and during the peak period (61-90 days). The higher level of milk fat during late lactation is attributed due to the lower level of milk however higher level of fat during early lactation was probably due to the dietary treatments. Similar trends were observed for SNF in both the groups. The protein level was almost constant throughout the lactation period and ranged from 2.98 to 3.18%. There was no significant difference between the groups. The results indicated that apple pomace could replace in the diet of crossbred cow (Red Sindhi X Jersey) to the extent of 33% without any adverse effect in the quantity and quality of milk produced. This is accordance to the earlier reports of Tiwari et al (1994) where calves could be raised with 33% substituted maize by apple pomace incorporated diet. Narang and Roshan lal (1985) indicated that substitution of maize with 80 per cent apple pomace was no way inferior to that of control.

References 

Narang M P and Roshan lal 1985 Evaluation of some Agro industrial wastes in the feed of Jersy calves. Agricultural wastes 13: 15

NRC 1981 Nutrients requirements of growing heifers. National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.

Snedecor G W and Cochran W G 1967 Statistical Methods. 6^th edition. Iowa State University Press. Ames, Iowa.

Tiwari S P , Narang M P , Kumar Naresh 1994 Incorporation of apple pomace in the ration of cross bred calves. Indian Journal of Dairy Science 48 (4): 274-276

Received 24 December 2007; Accepted 19 February 2008; Published 4 April 2008

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