Department of Animal Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Golestan Province, Iran.
The objective of this research work was to assess the male buffalo calves performance under two different feeding regimes. An experiment were conducted to study the feeding of different sources of protein, viz., cotton seed meal (CSM) and Soya bean meal (SBM) in the ration of male buffalo calves in Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan. 25 male buffalo calves of 6–12 months of age were selected and after 21 days of pre adjustment period on feeding, 5 animals were discarded and the remaining 20 buffalo calves were divided into 2 groups of 10 calves under each treatment. Observations were recorded on the animal responses to physiological reactions, and feeding behavior for 120 days. The statistical analysis was of complete randomized design (CRD). The housing systems for both the groups were loose housing system. Physiological responses like respiration rate (count per minute) of SBM group were significantly higher than that of the CSM group (P<0.05).Body temperature of CSM group was also significantly higher (P<0.05) for that of SBM group. Finally feeding behavior in terms of eating time and rumination time/minutes of SBM groups were significantly (P<0.05) higher than that of the CSM group.
