COMPARISON AMONG THE EFFECTS OF CLOVER HAY AND CORN SILAGES AS FEED INGREDIENTS ON PERFORMANCE OF LACTATING GOATS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University.

2 Animal Production Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

The effects of clover hay (CH), corn silage with ears (CS) and corn silage without ears (S) as roughage ingredients of lactating goats on their performance for milk yield and composition were investigated. Eighteen female Zaraibi goats in the 3rd season of lactation with average body weight of 38 Kg were divided randomly into three equal groups. All groups fed on restricted amount of concentrate feed mixture (CFM) and bean straw (BS) (800 and 300 g/h/d, respectively) along with CH, CS and S (ad lib.) in group 1 (control), 2 and 3, respectively.Average daily milk yield of goats fed CH or CS diets (0.769, 0.798 Kg, respectively) were higher (P<0.01) than those fed S diet (0.650 Kg). Milk fat % was not significantly affected by the treatments, but protein, lactose and total solids % were significantly (P<0.05) higher of goats fed CS than those fed CH or S diets.  On the other hand, the average milk protein and solids non fat (g/h/d) were significantly higher (P<0.01) of goats fed CS than those fed CH or S diets. The milk lactose (g/h/d) was significantly (P<0.05) higher of goats fed CS than those fed CH or S diets. The fat corrected milk (4% FCM) and energy corrected milk (Kg/h/d) were significantly higher (P<0.05) of goats fed CH or CS than those fed S diets. Total DM intake as Kg/h/d was increased when feeding on CH followed by that feeding on S diets. Economic efficiency data showed that the CS ration was economically superior to the CH, followed by that containing S diets.

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