A feeding trial of 120 days followed by digestibility trial was undertaken on 16 dairy Gir cows divided in four groups with various levels of hydroponics maize fodder. Highly significant (P<0.01) effect of feeding hydroponics maize fodder was observed on intake of dry matter and digestible crude protein intake, percentage digestible crude protein, percentage total digestible nutrient nutritive ratio and digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, crude Protein, crude fibre and nitrogen free extract whereas, the effect of treatment on digestibility of digestible organic matter intake was observed to be significant (P<0.05). It was concluded that hydroponics fodder has beneficial effect on nutrient utilization efficiency in Gir cows and it can replace the 75% of crude protein of concentrate mixture.

Highlights

• A significant effect was observed on nutrient utilization efficiency in Gir cows.
• In this feeding trail, 75% of the crude protein in the concentrate mixture was replaced via hydroponics.