Nutritional Composition of Cooked Rice Fed to Dairy Cattle of Tamil Nadu

Abstract

As the study focused on arriving at an ameliorative measure for disorders arising on cooked rice-based
feeding regimen cooked rice samples were estimated for their proximate principles soluble and insoluble
ash and mineral profile. Rice samples for chemical analysis were collected throughout Tamil Nadu from
dairy farmers who were following rice-based feeding regimen. Samples were collected from all the 32
districts of the state. In each district samples (100g of rice) were collected from four different locations. No
significant (p>0.05) variation existed in the proximate composition, soluble ash and acid insoluble ash of
cooked rice across districts of Tamil Nadu. Cooked rice was found to be an optimum source of crude
protein. Across districts the crude protein ranged between 9.2 to 12.6 per cent. The cooked rice samples
were a very poor (below (1%)) source of crude fibre. The soluble carbohydrate as indicated by nitrogen
free extracts (NFE) was above 84 per cent in the samples analyzed. No significant (p>0.05) variation
existed in the major mineral composition of cooked rice across districts of Tamil Nadu. No significant
(p>0.05) variation existed in the trace mineral composition of cooked rice across districts of Tamil Nadu.
Cooked rice had a low crude protein ranging between (9.2 to 12.6%) but had a very high nitrogen free
extract (NFE) of (above 84%) indicating a very wide gap in the available nitrogen to available soluble
carbohydrate. Hence, it is advocated to provide adequate degradable protein to ferment available
carbohydrate in the cooked rice to increase microbial protein production and reduce the fermentation of
energy to lactic acid and thereby reduce the risk of acidosis. Cooked rice was also a very poor source of
sulphur (0.68ppm on DMB). Hence, when nitrogen supplementation is carried out, the maintenance of N:
S ratio of 12:1 is critical. Cooked rice was also a very poor source of copper (0.01ppm on DMB) and cobalt
(0.006ppm on DMB) necessitating its supplementation.