Milk yield (offtake) and composition of White Fulani cows under free range grazing without and with concentrate supplementation
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Date
2017
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Abstract
The influence of supplementation with concentrate on milk yield (offtake) and composition in grazing White Fulani cows was investigated. Fourteen multiparous lactating White Fulani cows were assigned into two treatments of seven cows per treatment in a completely randomized design. Milk yield declined slightly from early lactation (2.01 and 2.23 kg/cow/day) to mid lactation (1.98 and 2.34 kg/cow/day) and then to late lactation (1.12 and 1.47 kg/cow/day) in the experimental cows under free range grazing only without concentrate supplementation (treatment 1) versus those offered free grazing plus concentrate (treatment 2). Milk crude protein contents were 3.55 and 3.80%, milk fat values were 4.46 and 4.70% and milk ash contents were 1.39 and 1.54%, in treatments 1 and 2 respectively. Milk mineral composition values were as follows: calcium (130.00 and 144.44 mg/100g); phosphorus (90.00 and 93.89 mg/100g); iron gave the lowest values (2.29 and 2.65 mg/100g) while sodium concentrations were highest (353.89 and 372.78 mg/100g). All observed results were significantly (P<0.05) higher in treatment 2 than in treatment 1. There were positive correlations between milk yield versus crude protein, solids-not-fat, total solids (r = 0.525; 0.552; 0.561) respectively. In conclusion, improvement in milk yield and composition of grazing cows could be achieved through concentrate supplementation.