Relationship between live weight/body condition and ovarian activity in Indonesian cattle
1992
Teleni, E. | Wijono, D.B.(Sub Balitnak Grati, Jawa Timur (Indonesia))
In East Java, female cattle are the main class of animals used for work in land tillage. One of the reasons for using females is the opportunity to extract extra income through calf production. However, the usually long day seasons in this region of Indonesia result in low availability of feed in both quantity and quality and it is not uncommon that cattle lose weight during this period. The problem is exacerbated when cows are worked at the end of the dry and beginning of the wet season. Utilising body reserve nutrients (body condition) in a feeding management package would be a sound strategy provided one is aware of the limits within which one can manipulate body condition without compromising the reproductive ability of the animals. This study was undertaken to define such limits. Forty cows of which 10 were Bali (Bos sondaicus), 20 Madura and 10 were Ongole crosses (Bos indicus) were fed a sub-maintenance diet of rice-straw and elephant grass 1:1. Ovarian activity was monitored by rectal palpations and plasma progesterone concentrations at 10-day intervals. All animals were assessed to be of a body condition score of 7 (on a scale of 1 to 10) before they were restrictively fed. The Bali, Madura and Ongole cows became acyclic on losing 13, 24 and 20 percent respectively of their live weights. It would appear from the above that the different breeds of cattle reacted differently to nutritional stress. Bali cattle appear to be more sensitive than the Madura and Ongole crosses which were similar in their response to those of Brahman cross cattle (Bos Indicus). It is suggested that such differences in breed response to nutritional stress should be taken into account when developing feeding management strategy for draught cows.
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