The aim of present study was to find out the effect of ‘challenge feeding’ on performance and economics of milk yield of crossbred cows. Eighteen advance pregnant crossbred cows were selected 60 days before expected date of calving and were divided into 3 groups i.e. control (T₁), treatment (T₂) and (T₃) on the basis of milk yield, parity and body weight for this study. During the pre-partum period, animals of T₁ control group were fed 1 kg concentrate for maintenance per day from 60^th day to prior to calving till the day of parturition. T₂ group animals were fed 1 kg concentrate for maintenance plus 1.5 kg concentrate as challenge feed per day from 60^th day to 22^nd day prior to calving and from 22^nd day prior to calving till parturition animals were fed 1 kg concentrate for maintenance plus 2 kg concentrate as challenge feed per day. T₃ group animals were fed 1 kg concentrate for maintenance plus 2 kg concentrate as challenge feed per day from 60^th day to 22^nd prior to calving and from 22^nd prior to calving till parturition animals were fed 1 kg concentrate for maintenance plus 2.5 kg concentrate as challenge feed per day. During the postpartum period, animals of T₁, T₂ and T₃ group were fed based on their milk yield as per thumb rule i.e. 1 kg concentrate per day for maintenance and 1 kg concentrate per 2.5 kg of milk production. The mean DMI (kg) in T₁, T₂ and T₃ cows during pre-partum period was 7.82, 9.04 and 10.09 kg respectively which did significantly between treatments. The postpartum DMI was significantly higher (P<0.05) in T₃ (11.40 kg) as compared to T₂ (10.74 kg) and T₁ (9.66 kg) treatments. The overall mean daily milk yield per animal was significantly higher (P<0.05) in T₃ (11.03 kg) as compared to T₂ (9.85 kg) & T₁ (6.96 kg). The difference in mean calf birth weight T₁, T₂ and T₃ was 19.9, 23.5 & 24.6 kg respectively. The overall means of body weight gain of cow in the treatment T₁, T₂ and T₃ groups were 31.33, 41.33 and 46.83 kg, respectively. It was concluded that the practice of challenge feeding of crossbred cows improved the production performance during early lactation without affecting their periparturient health and was found to be economical.

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