Volume: 57 Issue: 3
Year: 2026, Page: 461-466, Doi: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2026.57.3.461-466
Received: July 2, 2026 Accepted: Sept. 8, 2026 Published: Sept. 30, 2026
A feeding trial of 120 days was conducted to assess the effect of replacement of paddy straw by shredded arecanut spathe in total mixed ration for crossbred calves on nutrient digestibility and rumen fermentation. Eighteen weaned female crossbred calves of eight to twelve months of age were selected from Cattle Breeding Farm, Thumburmuzhy and randomly allotted to one of the three experimental groups complete rations viz., control- paddy straw based complete feed, T1- complete feed with replacement of 50 per cent paddy straw by areca sheath and T2 – complete feed with replacement of 100 per cent paddy straw by areca sheath (CP 13%, TDN 60%). All the experimental calves were fed as per ICAR, 2013. Statistical analysis of data revealed that there was no difference (P>0.05) among the experimental rations in the digestibility coefficient of DM, CP, NFE, EE and NDF studied. However, CF and ADF digestibility were significantly higher (P0.05) between the treatment groups. Hence, it was concluded that areca sheath can be effectively included in TMR, completely replacing paddy straw, improving fibre utilisation without adversely affecting nutrient digestibility and rumen fermentation in female crossbred dairy calves.
Keywords: Areca sheath, TMR, nutrient utilisation, rumen fermentation
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© 2026 Ambhore et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Ambhore, A.S., Shyama, K., Ally, K., Syam Mohan K.M., Geetha, N., Prabhakar & Hebbal, M.A. (2026). Effect of replacement of paddy straw with shredded arecanut spathe in total mixed ration on nutrient utilisation and rumen fermentation parameters of crossbred calves. Journal of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, 57(3), 461-466