Goat, Hydroponic fodder maize, Lactation study, Milk yield, Milk composition.

Small ruminants, such as goats, are a vital source of income and livelihood for many rural Indians. The Indian goat production industry has evolved from traditional extensive methods to more intensive systems, driven by market incentives. This trend is evident in the increasing interest among young entrepreneurs in developing expertise in goat farming (NAPG, 2018). However, scarce land and water resources often limit traditional fodder production. Hydroponic fodder production, a vertical farming method, offers a promising solution. It eliminates the need for land and reduces reliance on rainfall, making it particularly suitable for arid regions. Addition of HM instead of maize grains in goats' diet improves the growth performance and body weight gain (Roy et al. 2023). Feeding maize and barley hydroponic fodder to goats has improved diets digestibility, performance and growth, and Feed Conversion Ratio (Arif et al., 2023).  Goat milk provides various health benefits due to its unique composition of total solids, fat, protein, lactose, minerals, and vitamins. In addition to enhancing the physical and sensory qualities of dairy products, the lipids in goat milk are more easily digestible due to their smaller fat globule size and higher concentration of short- and medium-chain fatty acids (Turkmen, 2017). This study compared the nutritional value of hydroponically grown maize fodder as a partial replacement for concentrate feed in the diet of lactating Tellicherry goats. The objective was to evaluate its impact on goat lactation performance and its milk composition.

The study was conducted for nutritional evaluation of hydroponic fodder maize replacing 10% of the concentrate feed of Tellicherry goats. The experiment was carried out at the Sheep and Goat Unit, Post Graduate Research Institute in Animal Sciences, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University following the standard ethical guidelines. Twelve cross-bred Tellicherry does, in the second lactation, having a mean body weight of 31 kg were selected for the experiment. The does were randomly distributed into two treatments (T1 and T2) in such a manner that each treatment group had six does with no significant variation in the mean body weight of does between the groups. The does were housed individually with standard floor, feeder and watering space. All the animals were dewormed and dipped before the start of the experiment. The experiment was for 30 days. The does in T1 were offered conventionally grown fodders (CO5 Hybrid Napier grass) as roughage whereas the does in T2 were offered hydroponically grown fodder maize replacing 10 % of concentrate feed. Samples were analysed for crude protein, crude fibre, ether extract, total ash and nitrogen free extractives (AOAC, 2012). Milk compositions were measured using a milk analyser (Rai and Adhikari 2022). Data collected were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) using IBM SPSS statistics 20.

Chemical composition of feed and fodder. The proximate composition (% DMB) of hydroponic maize fodder, conventional fodder and goat concentrate feed are presented in Table 1. The nutritive value of hybrid Napier CO(CN)5 grass was in agreement with the hybrid Napier grass harvested at 75 days as reported by Ramya et al. (2017). Mynavathi et al. (2021) reported moisture (%), CP (%), EE (%), CF (%), TA (%), NFE (%) as 79.24±2.77, 10.31±0.62, 1.54±0.11, 29.68±2.36, 17.23±1.08, 41.24±1.52 respectively of Co(BN)5 grass. The results are similar to that of the current research.

The nutritive values of hydroponic maize fodder were in accordance with the results of Rachel et al., (2020) and Borah et al. (2023). In the present study, the dry matter content of hydroponic maize fodder was found to be 20.82 per cent, this value was in agreement with results reported by Naik et al. (2014) as 18.30 per cent and lower than values reported by Thadchanamoorthy et al. (2012) as 26.07 per cent in hydrophonic fodder maize. The present value of crude protein was 11.73 per cent lower than findings reported by Thadchanamoorthy et al. (2012) as 16.54 per cent, Naik et al. (2013) as 13.30-13.6 per cent, Singh (2011) as 13.57 per cent and Naik et al. (2014) as 13.30 per cent in hydroponic maize fodder. 

Lactation study in does. The milk yield and milk composition of does as influenced by feeding conventional fodders, hydroponic fodder maize and goat concentrate feed is presented in Table 2. In milk yield, there is no significant difference between the two treatment groups (conventional fodder + concentrate vs. conventional fodder + hydroponic maize + concentrate). This suggests that both diets can support similar milk production in lactating goats. In milk fat, the group fed a diet with hydroponic maize had a higher milk fat content (3.05%) compared to the control group (2.35%), this indicates that hydroponic maize might contribute to increased milk fat production. There was no significant difference in milk protein content between the two groups. The group fed hydroponic maize had a slightly higher milk carbohydrate content (2.96%) compared to the control group (2.53%), but the difference is not statistically significant. The group fed hydroponic maize had a lower milk ash content (0.58%) compared to the control group (0.75%). This might be due to the lower mineral content in hydroponic maize compared to conventional fodder. The group fed hydroponic maize had a significantly (P<0.05) higher energy value in their milk (52.57 Kcal) compared to the control group (44.63 Kcal). This aligns with the higher milk fat content observed in the hydroponic maize group.

Bhalerao et al. (2019) suggested that Osmanabadi goats fed a diet containing 40% hydroponic maize fodder exhibited the highest growth rates in terms of body weight gain, body length, chest girth, and wither height. Soniya et al. (2018) replaced concentrate feed in goats to an extent of 25% and 50% by hydroponically grown maize fodder. They reported that the dry matter intake, average daily gain and feed conversion efficiency did not show significant variations between the groups. Abd Rahim et al. (2015) found that supplementing dairy goats and sheep with barley green fodder resulted in a slight improvement in milk protein, milk fat and total solids. However, these improvements were not statistically significant in sheep. 

Table 1: Proximate composition (% DMB) of hydroponic fodder maize, conventional fodder and goat concentrate feed (Mean* ± SE).

                      *Mean of six replications

Table 2: Milk yield and milk composition of lactating does (Mean* ± SE) as influenced by feeding conventional fodders, Hydroponic fodder maize and Goat concentrate feed.

          *Mean of six replications; NS - Non-Significant

Feeding studies in goats with other hydroponic fodders can be studied for feeding during feed scarcity.

P. Tensingh Gnanaraj, S. Gunasekaran, K. Rajkumar, D. Balasubramayam, B. Murugan and T.R. Pugazhenthi  (2024). Effect of Feeding Hydroponic Maize Fodder Replacing Concentrate Feed Partially on Milk Yield and Composition in Lactating Tellicherry Goats. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 16(10): 75-77.