Abstract:
An experiment was conducted in Horro Guduru Zone, at Guduru Animal Production and
Research Center (GAPRC) of Wollega University to evaluate the effect of Ficus sur (Cv.
Forssk) fruits supplementation on feed intake, milk yield and composition, and sensory
attributes of Horro cows. Twelve healthy lactating Horro cows of similar lactation stage,
body weight and condition were selected from GAPRC. All of the selected cows were in early
(one weak to 10days) lactation stage. The experiment had three treatments with four
replications by using a randomized complete block design to which 2-5 parities were used as
blocking factor, and three cows were used per parity. The treatments were: T1. Rhodes grass
hay +1.7kg Oat grain +0.8kg Noug seed cake, T2. Rhodes grass hay +0.56kg Noug seed
cake+0.97kg oat grain +0.97kg Ficus sur fruits and T3. Rhodes grass hay +0.8kg Noug seed
cake+ 1.7kg Ficus sur fruits. The experiment was conducted for 60 days, out of which 15 days
were for adaptation and 45 days were for actual experiment. Except crude protein intake,
there were significant (P<0.05) differences in total dry matter, neutral detergent fiber, acid
detergent fiber and organic matter intakes among treatment groups. The mean milk yield
/cow/day was 2.96; while fat, protein, total solid, solid-not-fat, and Ash composition of milk
(%) were, 3.33, 2.98, 12.34, 9.02, and 0.67, respectively. Milk yield were increased across
treatments from T1 to T3. Except Lactose content, the compositions of milk were significantly
differed (P<0.05) among treatment groups. Milk fat of cows fed T1 diet was higher than those
fed T2 and T3 diet. Using of FSF as dairy cows feed with different proportion of NSC and
RGH improved the sensory attributes (flavor/test, aroma/odor, color) of yogurt, cheese and
butter. Except texture of butter, there were no significant difference on texture of yogurt and
cheese. Supplementation of Ficus sur fruit with Noug seed cake was potentially profitable and
economically feasible than those supplemented with Oat grain. In conclusion,
supplementation of Horro cows with different proportion of FSF and OG maintained on basal
diet of Rhodes grass hay has a positive effect on feed intake, milk yield and milk composition,
and sensory attributes of dairy products. Due to high cost of agro industrial by products and
critical feed shortage it is economically advantageous to use Ficus sur fruits as supplement to
improve milk production and productivity of Horro cows. Since FSF is nutritionally
promising, further research is suggested to study the propagation and management of Ficus
sur trees and their fruit yields.
