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• Feeding of colostrum to new born calves
• Feeding of calves up to 3 month age
• Feeding of calves from 3 to 6 month of age
• Feeding of buffalo calves from 6 month of age

Appropriate intake of nutrients is essential to achieve optimal fetal growth and neonatal survival. In early pregnancy, buffaloes should be fed on maintenance level or restricted level of feeding to increase conception rate. In general, until the last one third of gestation, nutrient requirements for intra-uterine growth are very small relative to mother’s maintenance. Only about one-third of the total products of conceptus are produced during the first 7 months of gestation period. Subsequently, there is rapid acceleration in fetal development during the last 3 months of gestation period. Generally, buffaloes should be fed to support 750-900 g average daily weight gain during last 2 month of pregnancy and about 700g average daily weight gain during the last 3 month of pregnancy.

In pregnancy of adult buffaloes, CP requirement increases by 3, 8.4, 16, 26, 43 and 64% of maintenance requirement on 5^th 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, 9^th   and 10^th month of pregnancy, respectively. The corresponding increases in TDN requirements are 4.3, 7.2, 18.8, 22.2, 39.0 and 67.4 % of maintenance requirement, respectively. During pregnancy substantial extra uterine growth in the mother takes place especially during early pregnancy. This is necessary in immature animals that are still growing i.e. those in first and second pregnancy and hence 20 and 10% of maintenance requirement of energy and protein should be additionally fed to the heifers in first and second pregnancy, respectively. In case of adult buffaloes maternal growth is considered as non-essential for pregnancy. However, in high yielding buffaloes additional allowance during early pregnancy may be given to facilitate building up of extra body reserve which can be utilized to meet out energy deficiency in early lactation when animals are invariably in negative energy balance due to limited DM intake capacity. Pregnant buffaloes should be dried at least 2 month before expected date of calving. In pregnancy, DM intake is low (about 1.7- 2% of BW). Pregnant dry buffaloes (at > 5 month of pregnancy) should be fed with 30 Kg green fodder and 2 Kg concentrate mixture (20% CP & 70% TDN) and ad libitum wheat straw. With decrease in availability of green fodder 1 Kg concentrate mixture should be additionally fed to replace every 10 Kg green fodder.

This ration will meet protein requirement for entire pregnancy and energy requirement upto 9.5 month of pregnancy but will fall short of energy requirement on the last 2 weeks of pregnancy when additionally 1-1.5 Kg grain has to be fed. For pregnant immature buffaloes in first pregnancy, additional 1 Kg grain or 5.5 Kg cereal fodder or 7.5 Kg legume fodder should be fed to support 300-350 g average daily maternal growth. Similarly, buffaloes in their 2^nd pregnancy should be fed additional 0.5 Kg grain or 2.7 Kg cereal fodder or 3.7 Kg legume fodder to support 120-200 g average daily maternal growth. Challenge feeding of buffaloes with good quality fodder and concentrate mixture during last three weeks of pregnancy helps in priming the rumen for increased concentrate feeding in early lactation and build up body reserve for lactation .

contributed by S.S Paul and Sunesh

The lactating animals must receive sufficient nutrients to supply the nutrient secreted in their milk, and for maintenance. If their nutrient needs are not met, they will not reach their optimum milk production capacity. Dietary energy is the most limiting factor in milk production. Milk production increases gradually, reaches peak at 42- 56 days after calving, and the peak is maintained for next 70 days. It declines gradually thereafter from 126 to 305 days. If the level of milk production is reduced during the early part of lactation below the potential level, the yield during the remainder period will also be adversely affected. In high yielding buffaloes usually there is high drainage of energy in milk and dry matter intake capacity is limited in early lactation. Inadequate energy intake in early lactation leads to loss of body weight and delay in initiation of post calving estrus cycle. Generally, ovarian cycle ceases when buffaloes loose 15 to 24% of body weight. Thus utmost care should be taken so that they are not underfed during early part of their lactation. The lactating buffaloes in their first and second lactation continue to grow and thus additional 20 &10% of maintenance requirement should also be provided in first and second lactation, respectively.

The lactating buffaloes of 450 Kg body weight can be fed following any of the four type of ration presented on Table 4 depending on availability of feed and fodders.

  Table 4 Some calculated rations for a 450 Kg lactating buffalo (Kg/d)

CM, concentrate mixture containing 20% CP and 70 % TDN; G, grains like maize or jowar.

 Adapted from Paul et al.(2008)

For every 50 Kg increase or decrease in body weight from 450 Kg  a) 350 g grain or b) 1 Kg straw or c) 3 Kg berseem or d) 2.5 Kg cereal fodder has to be increased or reduced accordingly. For buffaloes in first lactation additional 1 Kg grain or 5.5 Kg cereal fodder or 7.5 Kg legume fodder should be fed to support 300-350 g average daily growth. Similarly, buffaloes in their 2^nd lactation should be fed additional 0.5 Kg grain or 2.7 Kg cereal fodder or 3.7 Kg legume fodder to support 120-200 g average daily growth.

Example of some standard concentrate mixture containing about 20% CP and 70% TDN are presented in Table 5.

Table 5 Example of some standard concentrate mixtures (20% CP & 70% TDN)

CM = concentrate mixture

contributed by S.S Paul and Sunesh

Dry adult non-pregnant buffaloes or nonworking bullocks can meet their nutrient requirement for maintenance from 6-7 hr grazing with ad libitum feeding of straw during off grazing hours.

For stall-feeding of a 450 Kg buffalo

• 9.5 Kg straw + 0.7 Kg groundnut cake/soyabean cake or
• 7.0 Kg straw +10 Kg berseem (15% DM) or
• 28 Kg cereal fodder (20% DM)

will generally meet requirement.

For every 50 Kg higher body weight than 450 Kg

• 0.7 Kg straw+55 g groundnut cake/soyabean cake or
• 3 Kg green berseem or
• 2.5 Kg cereal fodder

has to be added and vice versa.

contributed by S.S Paul and Sunesh

Breeding bulls should attain body weight of 350-400 Kg body weight at 30 month of age and at this age they are ready to be used for breeding. As in case of females, in males also low plane of nutrition delay puberty. The adverse effects of malnutrition are more pronounced if they occur in early life than post weaning. In controlled experiment, low protein feeding delayed puberty of bulls by 5 months and such bulls had poor testicular development and small ejaculate volume as compared to their normal counterpart. Vitamin A and Zn deficiency can also delay puberty, reduce libido and may affect integrity of testicular tissue and hence special care need to be taken to prevent deficiency of these two critical nutrients. About 40 to 60% restriction of energy and protein during growing phase causes retardation of testicular growth and the effect persists throughout the life. On the other hand feeding high concentrate diets (80% concentrate in DM) to growing bulls reduced testicular sperm reserve and also reduced semen quality as compared to total roughage diet. It has been recommended that breeding bulls should be given 100% higher CP and 20% higher energy than maintenance requirement for mature female buffaloes.

Breeding bulls should be fed with good quality balanced ration. However, care should be taken to avoid overfeeding as fatness lead to reduced libido and reduced reproductive performance. For a 700 Kg buffalo bull following feeding schedule can be followed: a) 40 Kg cereal fodder + 0.8 Kg deoiled ground nut cake/deoiled soyabean cake or b) 10 Kg berseem + 10 Kg straw + 1.2 Kg deoiled ground nut cake/deoiled soyabean cake or c) 8 Kg straw + 2.0 Kg concentrate mixture + 2-3 Kg green fodder + 1 Kg deoiled ground nut cake/deoiled soyabean cake. For every 50 Kg increase or decrease in body weight from 700 Kg, a) 0.6 Kg straw +100 g deoiled groundnut cake/deoiled soyabean cake or b) 3 Kg green berseem or c) 3 Kg green cereal fodder should be added/deducted from the ration suggested for 700 Kg body weight.

contributed by S.S Paul and Sunesh

For working animals, nutritional requirements depend on duration of work, speed of work and load carried.

For light work (4h/d)

Buffalo bullocks of 550 Kg body weight should be fed as follows: a) 4.0 Kg concentrate mixture + 7 Kg straw or b) 1.5 Kg concentrate mixture + 35 Kg cereal fodder or c) 20 Kg berseem+8 Kg straw + 0.5 Kg deoiled ground nut cake/ deoiled soyabean cake or d) 2.0 Kg concentrate mixture+ 10.0 Kg berseem + 8.0 Kg straw + 0.4 Kg oil cake. For every 50 Kg increase/ decrease in body weight from 550 Kg , a) 0.65 Kg straw + 180 g deoiled ground nut cake/deoiled soyabean cake or b) 4.0 Kg green berseem or c) 2.5 Kg cereal fodder + 100 g deoiled groundnut cake/deoiled soybean cake should be increased/decreased from the quantity suggested for 550 Kg body weight.

For heavy work (8h/d)

Buffalo bullocks of 550 Kg body weight should be fed as follows: a) 5 Kg concentrate mixture + 8 Kg straw or b) 3 Kg concentrate mixture + 40 Kg cereal fodder or c) 40 Kg berseem + 7 Kg straw or d) 3 Kg concentrate mixture + 14 Kg berseem + 8 Kg straw.

For every 50 Kg increase or decrease in body weight from 550 Kg body weight a) 1 Kg straw +180 g deoiled ground nut cake/deoiled soyabean cake or b) 4 Kg berseem + 0.35 Kg straw or c) 4 Kg cereal fodder + 50 g deoiled ground nut cake/deoiled soyabean cake should be increased/decreased from the quantity suggested for 550 Kg body weight.

contributed by S.S Paul and Sunesh