Animal Nutrition-पशुपोषण

Feeding Area Specific Mineral Mixture to Dairy Cattle for improved Production & Reproductive efficiency

April 2, 2023

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Feeding Area Specific Mineral Mixture to Dairy Cattle for improved Production & Reproductive efficiency

Low reproductive efficiency in cattle and buffaloes is one of the major problems in livestock production in India, resulting in poor economic returns to the livestock farmers. The deficiency and/or imbalance of micro and macro nutrients are one of the important factors responsible for the low reproductive efficiency. India is the highest milk producing country in world, because of the sizeable population of its dairy animals. But, per animal milk production in the India is still very low which can be attributed to poor nutritional management leading to several mineral deficiency diseases .Minerals are the essential nutrients bearing a important role in the animal production and reproduction, because their excess or deficiency produces a negative effect on productivity of livestock .However, majority of the feed and fodders given to livestock are deficit in major nutrients all over India . Most of the animals in developing countries including India are fed on agriculture by products and inferior quality crop residues, which have got low nutritive value and digestibility . Problem of mineral deficiency diseases in dairy animals have been reported by many scientists because of low availability of some essential micro and macro minerals in different feed stuffs. Regular supplementation of mineral mixture in the diet of dairy animals have improved milk yield .

The productivity of dairy cows is dependent on balanced feeding by providing adequate quantities of all necessary nutrients to meet their requirements for a particular physiological function. Reproductive efficiency is one of the most important factor which affects profitability in ruminants. Some trace minerals have important roles to maximise reproductive performances. Even marginal deficiency of these minerals can impair reproduction showing few, clinical signs of deficiency. Effects of mineral deficiency and metabolic disorders in all categories of dairy animals have been observed due to lower mineral content and poor availability of essential macro and micro minerals from different feed staffs. Deficiency associated problem have been observed in cattle of different regions and in most of the cases it differs from one region to another region due to different soil composition, intensity of cropping, precipitation pattern and soil erosion pattern . The assessment and preventives of mineral deficiency needs thorough understanding of the factors like age of animals, season, soil profile, plant materials and feeding practices. It is, therefore, important to understand the basis of mineral nutrition very clearly as also to meet the requirement of the animals to overcome the problem of deficiencies or excesses, so as to maintain productivity. The concept of areaspecific mineral supplement is a new approach of low input and high output for the end users.

India has the largest bovine population in the world and ranks first in milk production (176.3 million) during 2017-18 recording a growth of 6.65% .The per capita milk availability in the country is 374 gram/day which is much more than the world average consumption of milk 294 gram/day .However, per animal productivity is very low in the country is mainly due to poor genetic makeup along with compromised nutritional status of the dairy animals which leads to various metabolic disorders and reproductive inefficiencies such as anestrous, repeat breeding, and infertility .Hence, balanced nutrition is very essential for maintaining good body condition score (3 to 3.5) which renders them enhancing the production and reproduction efficiency of dairy animals. Mineral deficiency in dairy animals is the foremost cause of poor growth rate, suppress body immunity, decreased milk yield, and various reproductive disorders .During the past decade, significant research has been conducted for understanding the effect of macro/micro mineral supplements on the production efficiency in dairy animals . Various minerals are being depleted gradually in soil and grown fodder which reflect in dairy animals as deficiency syndrome of that particular mineral .Hence, the quantity of minerals present in fodder/grasses may not be adequate for optimal growth, production, and reproduction performances, when fed to dairy animals .

In India , 30% of total cattle populations are suffering from infertility. The practice of mineral supplementation to animals is not common in most parts of India. Wherever it is practiced the mineral mixture is added to the compound feed without considering the mineral status of the area, leading to imbalances of minerals. Supplementation of area-specific minerals most deficient in that area avoids antagonistic effects of excess levels of other minerals and could be a more practical and cost-effective approach. A detailed study on the micronutrient status of soil, water, feeds and fodder and blood of crossbred dairy animals maintained under field conditions was carried out in ten agro-climatic zones of Karnataka. Based on this information area-specific mineral mixture (ASMM) comprising of the deficient minerals was prepared for different agro-climatic zones. The technology was field tested in adopted villages under Institute village linkage programme. About 80–90 percent of the animals started cycling within 70 days of ASMM supplementation and about 50-60 percent of animals became pregnant. All the animals’ supplemented showed improvement in general health and marginal improvement in milk yield (0.5-1.0lit/d) and milk fat (0.4-0.5 units).Minerals are essential for growth, health, reproduction and normal physiological functions of animal’s body (Chew, 2000). The supplementation of Area Specific Mineral Mixture (ASMM) increased reproductive efficiency in buffaloes and 70 percent buffaloes showed normal cyclicity (Annual Reports, DARE, 2008–2009). Dietary deficiencies result in failure of the mineral homeostasis mechanism, which affects the productive and reproductive potential of the animal. Reproduction is an important productive parameter affecting the profitability of dairy industry. Higher conception rates are achieved with the help of adequate concentration of trace minerals (Rabiee et al., 2010).Trace minerals help in improving the reproductive performance of cattle (Kumar et al., 2011; Grace and Knowles, 2012). Keeping in view of these facts and findings, the present study was designed to determine the effect of area specific mineral mixture supplementation on the reproductive performance of dairy animals.

Additional supplementation of area specific mineral mixture in the diet of milking animals improve the productivity of animal and also high benefit cost ratio. Hence it is advised to educate the farmers about scientific feeding of their milking animals with the area specific mineral mixture for getting optimum productivity and more profits from dairy farming

Salient features

Formulation based on most deficient minerals.
Minerals in mixture at balanced proportion to prevent interactions.
Farmer and eco-friendly.
Saves resources

Area Specific Mineral Mixture

Minerals are required by dairy animals for their metabolic functions, growth, milk production, reproduction and health. Animal cannot synthesise minerals inside its body and usually feeds and fodders fed to the dairy animals do not provide all the minerals in the required quantity. Therefore, animal should be supplemented with adequate amount of good quality mineral mixture in their ration.

Level of minerals in feeds and fodder varies from region to region, thus mineral availability to the animal also varies. So, it is necessary to produce region specific mineral mixture accordingly.

For that, NDDB has completed mineral mapping for various states/ region and accordingly area specific mineral mixture formulations have been developed. ASMM has to be fed @ 100-200 g daily, depending upon level of milk production in lactating animals, 50 g daily for growing and non-producing animals and 25 g daily for calves.

Benefits of feeding ASMM:

Improves growth rate of calves, hence early puberty
Improves reproduction efficiency in male and female animals
Reduce inter-calving period leading to more productive life of animals
Improves efficiency of feed utilisation
Improves milk production and SNF content of the milk
Better immune response; hence better resistance against diseases

NDDB has standardised process and plant design for production of mineral mixture. Technical assistance in setting up mineral mixture plants of 12 and 25 MT/day capacities is being provided to the dairy cooperatives and other agencies.

Effect of Mineral Mixture on Growth Parameter

Sawant et al. reported that supplementation of mineral mixture increases growth rate and body weight with better feed conversion efficiency in heifers deficient with certain minerals . Bone meal supplementation has been reported to increase body weight gain in grazing animals . Similar observation of increased body weight gain on mineral supplementation has been found in zebu cattle and buffalo calves .

Effect of Minerals (Ca, P, Cu, Zn, Co and Mn) on Reproductive Performances

Deficiency of a single or multiple minerals or their imbalances leads to delayed puberty, delayed ovulation, lower conception rate, high embryonic/foetal losses and prolonged postpartum anoestrous .The supplementation of ASMM has been reported to increase reproductive efficiency in buffaloes. Dietary deficiency of macro nutrients is well combated by commercially available feeds and hence optimum supplementation of all the micro minerals results as stimulus for ovarian rebound and initiation of ovarian activity . Mineral supplementation has been reported to improve the reproductive efficiencies in animals . Effect of supplementation of deficient minerals (Ca, P, Cu, Zn and Mn) through area specific mineral mixture (ASMM) was studied by a series of experiments . The results revealed increased plasma oestrogen and progesterone concentrations in repeat breeder and anoestrous cows. Selvaraju et al. reported that pubertal process could be initiated in the delayed pubertal heifer through supplementing the area specific mineral mixture . They also found that problem of silent oestrus can also be ameliorated through area specific mineral supplementation. Deficiencies of minerals like P, Cu and Zn have been associated with subnormal fertility and anoestrus conditions. Mineral supplementation decreases days to first service and days open and also improves conception rate in bovines . Swenson supplemented Cu, Zn, Co and Mn to heifers and found that the cows exhibiting oestrus by day 45 earlier in mineral supplemented group and the percentage of cows bred by artificial insemination was improved .Molybdenum supplementation is found to cause delayed puberty, decreased conception rate and anoestrus in cattle without accompanying changes in Cu status or in live weight gain . Therefore, it was proposed that the effects of Mo were associated with a decreased release of luteinizing hormone that might be due to an altered ovarian steroid secretion .Supplementation of regional specific mineral mixture i.e. RSMM (Ca, P, Cu, Zn and Mn) and iodized salt through concentrate mixture for a period of 30 days in anoestrous crossbred heifer exhibited oestrus in 92.16 per cent heifers and 97.38 per cent heifer conceived with one to four inseminations . Mohapatra et al. observed that anoestrus heifer, anoestrus cow and repeat breeding cows fed with area specific mineral mixture (Ca, P, Zn, Cu, Mn, Co and I) exhibited oestrus in higher percent (45, 70 and 60 per cent, respectively) compared to untreated cattle (10 per cent) .Weiss has extensively reviewed the importance of micro minerals for productive and reproductive performances of dairy cows . Dutta et al. reported higher productive and reproductive performances in dairy cows supplemented with mineral mixture enriched with some important micro minerals . Organic iron supplementation during late gestation and early lactation has been found to increase productive and reproductive performances in cows . Zinc plays important roles in reproductive function of dairy cows, particularly by decreasing the incidence of abortion and abnormal oestrus and reducing days to first oestrus .Moreover, other researchers found that Cu improved reproductive performances of Holstein cows and Mn improved bovine sperm activity . Therefore, feeding dairy cows with organic sources of these trace minerals might result in improved fertility. In particular, beneficial effects on fertility have been reported in cows fed organic trace minerals during late gestation . Trace elements deficiencies are expressed in the animals by diverse forms, since these elements form molecule complexes of the metabolism of proteins, lipids and carbohydrates, where they play key roles as components and enzyme cofactors or transcription factors . The mineral status of the animal has effects on every phase of the reproductive cycle .

Effects of Mineral Mixture Supplementation on Blood Metabolites, Enzymes and Hormones during Pubertal Process

Blood metabolite profiles indicate the health status of the animal. Effect of mineral block on blood glucose levels was observed in Boer goat who reported that blood glucose level in treatment group was higher than control group . The NEFA are energy metabolites that can be used as markers of excessive negative energy balance in dairy cow during the transition period. The principle circulating blood metabolites used to assess the energy status are plasma glucose and NEFA. However, blood α-amino nitrogen is an indicator of protein synthesis status of the animal.Dutta et al. also reported low Zn level in anoestrus heifers. Fall in Zn level was associated with fall in steroid hormone concentrations which indicated that there was some correlation between plasma Zn levels and progesterone-oestrogen levels for proper reproductive processes . It is well established that minerals play an intermediate role in the action of hormones and enzymes at cellular level and their deficiency ultimately affects the reproductive performance of females . ffect of minerals (Ca, Cu, and Mn) on SGOT, SGPT and glucose level in crossbred heifer is reported. HumannZiehank et al. reported that in growing lambs value of SGPT and SGOT was higher in lambs supplemented with mineral mixture than mineral deficient lambs .

Though number of minerals are important in maximizing productive and reproductive performances in ruminants but in most of eastern region face problems with calcium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, cobalt and manganese. These deficiencies can affect the occurrence of estrus, conception rate and foetal development in females. Even in males, deficiencies of some trace mineral can reduce testicular development, sperm production and viability. Therefore, suitable area specific mineral mixture should be supplied though the ration for better productive and reproductive performance of the animals.