MILK PRODUCTION AND CALVE GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF OGADEN CATTLE UNDER IMPROVED FEEDING MANAGEMENT

Abstract

The experiment was conducted in Haramaya University beef farm from July 2019- June 2020 with the objective to investigate milk production, milk composition and calve growth performance(birth weight,weaning weight and daily weight gain) of ogaden cattle under improved feeding management. Sixteen lactating cows from early to late lactation stage were used by Randomized complete block design to receive four treatment diets. The supplementation was given based on cow’s daily milk yields by partial milking system, which were 0.9 kg, 0.6 kg and 0.3 kg and 0 kg (control) per litre of daily milk yield as T1, T2 and T3 and T4 in addition to grazing of pasture and night offer of grass hay respectivly. The ration contains 35%wheat short, 35% wheat bran, 29% noug seed cake and 1% salt as well as natural pasture from grazing land and standing hay used as basal diets. The study revealed that the average male and female birth weight were 29.33±1.25 kg and 25.85±0.73 kg respectively. The average male and female weaning weights were 133.6±3.3 kg and 105.7±4.37 kg respectively. The male and female Average daily weight gain of calve from birth to weaning were 0.57 kg±0.01 kg and 0.437±0.024 kg/day respectively. Sex of calve was non-significant (P>0.05) on birth weight but significant effect on (P<0.05) weaning weight and Average daily gain. The Average daily milk yield for each treatment were 4.52±0.29 kg, 3.92±0.21 kg, 3.44±0.16 kg and 2.8±0.28 kg/day for T1, T2, T3 and T4 respectively. The lowest and highest milk yield recorded were T4 and T1 respectively. The Cattle in treatment T1 and T2 were produced higher milk production than T4 by 60% and 40 and have significant different (P<0.05). The overall average milk compositions were 5.19±0.06% and 3.53±0.03% for milk fat% and milk protein%, respectively. Therefore it can be concluded that high milk yield, high Average daily weight and high calve weights at weaning age were observed by cattle high ratio of Concentrate feed (T1)