The objective of this study was to evaluate effect of noug seed cake, linseed cake and cottonseed cakemixed with wheat bran as a concentrate supplement to oat-vetch mixture hay on feed intake and nutrient utilization in lactating crossbred dairy cows. Four crossbred dairy cows with similar lactation stage (mid lactation) were used. Four feed types were considered for the study; namely, oat-vetch hay, noug cake, cotton seed cake and linseed cake. Oat-vetch hay was used as a basal diet whereas the rest three were protein supplements. A 4*4 Latin Square Design was used for the feeding experiment with four dietary treatments assigned to animals at random initially. The crude protein (CP) content of the oat-vetch hay was 11% and the oil seed cakes used were above 30%. The invitro dry matter digestibility (IVOMD) of oat-vetch hay, NSC, CSC, LSC, and WB was 60.87, 63.24, 67.09, 70.36 and 75.95%, respectively. Treatments had significant effect (P<0.05) on total oat-vetch hay, total dry matter (TDM), total crude protein (TCP) intake, but not significant (p>0.05) on total organic matter (TOM), total neutral detergent fiber (TNDF) and total acid detergent fiber (TADF). The apparent dry matter digestibility (ADMD), apparent organic matter digestibility (AOMD), apparent crude protein digestibility (ACPD) and apparent neutral detergent fiber (ANDFD) were significantly different (P<0.05) among the treatments. Higher intake of the total dry matter of the basal diet was recorded in cows supplemented with cottonseed cake. Higher CP digestibility was observed in cows supplemented with cottonseed cake (T2) and followed by noug seed cake (T1) relatively.

Keywords: Cottonseed cake; Dairy cow; Linseed cake; Milk; Noug seed cake; Oat-vetch; Wheat bran