246
To our knowledge, it is the first Malawian study where nutritional regimes for
cattle have been studied to meet the challenges that climate change represents for
animal production in northern Malawi. The results in the present study show that
supplementing lactating cows during the dry months when feed is scarce and of low
quality is a manageable way of increasing body weight attainment in their calves.
Calves from dams receiving supplemental feeding had 5 cm more body girth after
adjustment for gender and time of birth in multivariable generalised linear models.
These findings are in agreement with Maphane and Mutshewa (1999) who demonstrated that growth and body weight are profoundly affected by supplementation of
feeding in dry season.
Body weight was greater in female calves in March. It is also reflected in previous investigations, revealing that female calves are better cared for than male calves.
This is probably because they represent greater value for the farmer. These findings
are in line with previous results (Chang’a et al. 2012; Young 1972) that found that
predicting cattle live weights can be influenced by sex, environment, production
system, animal husbandry practices and other factors. Increased food production
and decreased environmental impact from livestock production require that the
meat production potential in male calves is exploited in a more efficient matter than
is currently the case.
Prolonged lactation periods may very well explain why the body weight
attainment was greater in calves from experimental cows as compared to calves
from cows in the control group in this study, although this was not measured during the same 2nd year. However, length of the lactation period was positively
influenced by a relatively low quantity of leguminous leaves (114 kg) during
experiment 1. Due to resource demanding work in the field, it was not possible to
determine accurately when the lactation stopped during experiment 2. This was
only possible during experiment 1 when the field assistant collected milk samples from all 56 cows twice weekly in 36 different farms. We were also not able
to obtain accurate measures of milk yield, so lactation length was chosen as a
measure for increased milk yield.
This study showed that feeding supplementation of lactating Malawi Zebu
cows during the dry season did not influence reproductive outcome in this population of Zebu cattle. Another publication included in this book shows a relatively low incidence of some common infectious diseases in this population of
Zebu cattle. The most important means of increasing reproductive efficiency in
these 36 farms is therefore related to bull management and herd composition.
Processing of feed ingredients and incorporation of leguminous leaves result in
higher quality and digestibility of feed (Mekoya et al. 2008). It has previously
been shown that an increase of feed digestibility has been associated with
marked decreases in age at first calving. This is because feed digestibility is
related to growth rate in animals (Keady et al. 2012), and the assumption is that
growth rate and age at first calving are closely associated (Gerber et al. 2013a).
However, the period of the current study did not allow for comparisons of age at
first delivery.
M. A. Bhatti et al.
To our knowledge, it is the first Malawian study where nutritional regimes for
cattle have been studied to meet the challenges that climate change represents for
animal production in northern Malawi. The results in the present study show that
supplementing lactating cows during the dry months when feed is scarce and of low
quality is a manageable way of increasing body weight attainment in their calves.
Calves from dams receiving supplemental feeding had 5 cm more body girth after
adjustment for gender and time of birth in multivariable generalised linear models.
These findings are in agreement with Maphane and Mutshewa (1999) who demonstrated that growth and body weight are profoundly affected by supplementation of
feeding in dry season.
Body weight was greater in female calves in March. It is also reflected in previous investigations, revealing that female calves are better cared for than male calves.
This is probably because they represent greater value for the farmer. These findings
are in line with previous results (Chang’a et al. 2012; Young 1972) that found that
predicting cattle live weights can be influenced by sex, environment, production
system, animal husbandry practices and other factors. Increased food production
and decreased environmental impact from livestock production require that the
meat production potential in male calves is exploited in a more efficient matter than
is currently the case.
Prolonged lactation periods may very well explain why the body weight
attainment was greater in calves from experimental cows as compared to calves
from cows in the control group in this study, although this was not measured during the same 2nd year. However, length of the lactation period was positively
influenced by a relatively low quantity of leguminous leaves (114 kg) during
experiment 1. Due to resource demanding work in the field, it was not possible to
determine accurately when the lactation stopped during experiment 2. This was
only possible during experiment 1 when the field assistant collected milk samples from all 56 cows twice weekly in 36 different farms. We were also not able
to obtain accurate measures of milk yield, so lactation length was chosen as a
measure for increased milk yield.
This study showed that feeding supplementation of lactating Malawi Zebu
cows during the dry season did not influence reproductive outcome in this population of Zebu cattle. Another publication included in this book shows a relatively low incidence of some common infectious diseases in this population of
Zebu cattle. The most important means of increasing reproductive efficiency in
these 36 farms is therefore related to bull management and herd composition.
Processing of feed ingredients and incorporation of leguminous leaves result in
higher quality and digestibility of feed (Mekoya et al. 2008). It has previously
been shown that an increase of feed digestibility has been associated with
marked decreases in age at first calving. This is because feed digestibility is
related to growth rate in animals (Keady et al. 2012), and the assumption is that
growth rate and age at first calving are closely associated (Gerber et al. 2013a).
However, the period of the current study did not allow for comparisons of age at
first delivery.
M. A. Bhatti et al.