Assessment of Feed Formulation and Feeding Practices for Urban and Periurban Dairy Cows Around Holetta, Ethiopia
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Date
2014-06
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Addis Ababauniversity
Abstract
There was a concern that farmers mix feed rations using locally available feed ingredients in any proportions and are often not aware of their quality, cost and impact of nutrient imbalances to performances of animals.This study was conducted on private urban and periurban dairy production systems around Holetta to assess the existing feed formulation and feeding practices for crossbred dairy cows in terms of nutrient supply, identify the gap in relation to the recommended nutrients required, assess performances of crossbred dairy cows and evaluate the economic viability of concentrate feeds. Structured questionnaire and laboratory analysis for home-mixed concentrate were employed to generate data from a total of 60 dairy farms. Based on laboratory analysis, the overall mean of home-mixed concentrates nutrient contents, were216.58±20.86 g/kg DM of crude protein,10.99±0.59 MJ/kg DM Metabolizable energy, 4.55±1.23 g/kg DM calcium and 10.16±1.16 g/kg DM of phosphorusand were differed significantly (P<0.05) between urban and periurban production systems. The overall mean crude proteinsupply per kg of milk yieldthrough home-mixed concentrates was93.06±15.81g anddid not vary (P>0.05)across the production subsystems.The overall mean nutrient supply per kg of milk yield through home-mixed concentrates4.73±0.70 MJ metabolizable energy, 1.98±0.62 g calcium and 4.36±0.73 g phosphorus and varied significantly (P<0.05)across production subsystems. The overall estimated mean daily milk yield per cow,calving intervaland days open was 10.20±2.63 kg,14.83±1.52 months and 163.83±36.90 days, respectively, and varied significantly (P<0.05) across the production subsystems of the study.The milk price/concentrate price ratio was 5.42 per cow/day varied significantly (P<0.05) across the production subsystems of the studyThus,it is concluded that big variation in nutrient supply and imbalances resulting in an apparently low performance of dairy animals in terms of milk yield, calving interval and days open as compared to what were expected and variation in economic viability of the dairy farms.
Key words: Feed formulation, Urban,Periurban, cows, nutrient supply
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Keywords
Feed formulation, Urban, Periurban, cows, nutrient supply