Supplementary feeding of calves
During 1988 the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA), carried out a number of trials to assess the effect on calves of different types of diet supplementation. Two trials were conducted using Sesbania sesban or Leucaena leucocephala leaves as a supplement to calves fed an ad lib. diet based on wheat straw, against the use of molasses/urea blocks or cottonseed cake. It was found that the daily weight gain of calves supplemented with Sesbania was significantly higher than those with molasses/urea blocks and comparable to those supplemented with cottonseed cake. Leucaena proved to be less effective. Another trial investigated the effect of substituting cowpea haulm for cottonseed cake with calves again fed on a basal diet of ad lib. wheat straw. Although the calves fed cowpea haulms increased their consumption of wheat straw compared to those fed cottonseed cake, the daily live weight gains of the two groups was not significantly different. A further set of teals was conducted to assess the effect of substituting cowpea hay or cowpea haulm for cottonseed cake on the growth of calves fed a basal diet of ad lib. maize stover. Calves supplemented with a combination of cottonseed cake and cowpea hay had signficantly higher daily weight gains than either of the other groups supplemented with cowpea hay or haulm alone, or cottonseed cake and cowpea haulm. In the trials mineral blocks were available at all times to animals that did not have access to molasses/urea blocks. ILCA - PO Box 5689 Addis Abeba - ETHIOPIA.
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| Format: | News Item biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
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Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
1990
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/45297 http://collections.infocollections.org/ukedu/en/d/Jcta27e/ |
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