Advanced Journal of Agricultural Research Vol. 1 (2), pp. 006-010, October, 2013. © Advanced Scholars Journals

Full length research paper

Feeding value of Prosopis juliflora Pod Flour in the concentrate diet of lactating cross bred (F1 Boran x Friesian) dairy Cows

Getu Kitaw¹*, Getnet Assefa², Aemiro Kehaliw¹, Zewdie Wondatir¹, Dereje Fekadu¹

¹Holetta Research Center, P.O. Box 2003, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

²Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, P.O. Box 2003 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

*Corresponding Author. E-mail: [email protected]

Accepted 12 September, 2013

Abstract

The experiment was conducted at Holetta Agricultural Research Center with an objective to assess the performance of early lactating crossbred cows (50% Friesian-Boran) fed natural pasture hay supplemented with increasing levels of flours from P. juliflora  pods replacing wheat bran in a formulated dairy concentrate mix. Five cows with same genetic make-up except for parity were arranged randomly in 5x5 Latin Square Design to receive the control diet i.e., dairy concentrate mix with 0% P. juliflora[u1]   + Natural pasture hay (T₁) ; P. juliflora replacing 10% wheat bran  + adlib Natural pasture hay (T₂) ; P. juliflora  replacing 20% wheat bran  + adlib Natural pasture hay (T₃) ; P. juliflora  replacing 30% wheat bran + adlib Natural pasture hay (T₄) ; P. juliflora pod flour replacing 50% wheat bran in the mix + adlib Natural pasture hay (T₅). Partial replacement of P. juliflora for wheat bran up to 50% level of supplementation didn’t influence (P>0.05) daily basal feed and total dry matter intakes (TDMI)[u2]  relative to the control groups. Nutrient intakes except for Neutral Detergent Fibre[u3]  (NDF). Cows supplemented the pod at 10% replacement (T₂) produced higher daily milk yield (P<0.05) than cows on the remaining treatments. It can be recommended that the pods’ flour from prosopis can be used as alternative energy diet to replace up to 30% of wheat bran in a concentrate mix for lactating crossbred cows.

Key words: Prosopis juliflora pod, basal feed, concentrate mix, wheat bran, nutrient intake.