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Full Length Research Paper
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Effect of season and supplementation during late pregnancy
and early lactation on the performance of Zebu cows and
calves
A. G. Sidibé-Anago1*, G. A.
Ouedraogo2 and I. Ledin3
1Institute
of Environment and Agricultural Research, Department of
Animal Production, Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina- Faso.
2Institute
of Rural Development, Polytechnic University of
Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina- Faso.
3Swedish
University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Animal
Nutrition and Management, Uppsala, Sweden.
*Corresponding author.
E-mail:
Accepted 19 September, 2008
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Abstract |
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The effect of supplementation 8 weeks before and/or 5 weeks
after calving in the wet and dry seasons on cow and calf
performance was studied using 24 pregnant Zebu cows in each
season. During pregnancy the cows were randomly allocated to
two treatment groups of 12 cows each and after calving six
cows within each pregnancy group were allocated to two
post-partum treatments. All cows grazed natural pastures for
8 h /day and the treatments both pre- and post-partum was:
grazing only, or grazing and supplementation with cottonseed
cake and molasses. The cows were milked twice a day and the
calves were allowed to suckle after each milking. The
average body weight of the cows after parturition were
similar among treatments, but were significantly higher in
the wet season. All cows, except the unsupplemented cows
during the wet season, gained weight during the first 5
weeks of lactation. Pre-partum supplementation of the cows
significantly (P<0.05) increased the birth weights of the
calves during both the dry and wet seasons. Calves from pre-
and post-partum supplemented cows gained 350 and 307 g/day
and calves from unsupplemented cows gained 271 and 185 g/day
in the wet and dry season, respectively. The total milk
yields for pre- and post-partum supplemented cows were 5.02
and 4.24 kg/d and for unsupplemented cows 2.65 and 2.18 kg/d
in wet and dry season, respectively. The cows supplemented
either pre- or post-partum generally showed intermediate
production results. There were no significant differences in
milk composition due to treatment. The best performance of
cows and calves was obtained with supplementation both
before and after calving, but supplementing during lactation
only may give a better return than supplementing during
pregnancy.
Key words:
Milked yield, suckled yield, milk composition, growth,
weight change. |
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