The effect of protein and energy concentrate supplementation on milk yield in dromedary camels
2003
Moges Dereje(Alemaya University, Dire Dawa (Ethiopia)) | Peter Uden(Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala (Sweden). Department of Animal Nutrition and Management)
An experiment was conducted on farm in Erer Valley village, Eastern Ethiopia to study the effect of supplementing with a protein or energy concentrate on milk yield in lactating dromedary camels. The treatments were control: browsing only during daytime, energy supplement (ES): natural browsing + ground maize (Zea mays) and protein supplement (PS): natural browsing + decorticated groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) cake. Six dromedary camels were allocated randomly at peak lactation to three treatments in a double 3x3 Latin square design. The animals were fed 4 kg of each supplement divided in two equal meals before and after daytime browsing for a period of 63 days in both the dry and wet seasons. Milk yield and butterfat differences between seasons were also significant (p0.001) and (p0.05) in which 9.2 and 10.4 kg milk and 3.7 and 3.8% butterfat were recorded for the dry season and wet season respectively. There was no significance difference between treatments and seasons with regard to protein. The results suggest that oil seed by-products supplements with relatively high CP value such as groundnut cake have a substantial effect on milk production of camels where the traditional range feed resources are already becoming scarcer.
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