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Matching Livestock Systems with Available Resources |
MEKARN Regional Conference 2007 |
The project was carried out to understand fully the current situation of dairy
production in Nghe An privince and determine the effect of restricted suckling
on milk production and health of cows and on the performance of the calves at
small dairy farms.
The number of dairy herds have been increasing sharply in the province during the
period 2001-2005. Most of them were kept at small dairy farms. Calves were fed
using artificial rearing (AR) system. However, it seemed that the restricted
suckling (RS) practice may be better in the current situation.
Ten F1 (HF x Laisind) cows of 5 households (two per each hh, of which one was practiced AR and other was applied RS). These cows were in 2-3 lactation, kept in individual pens fed elephant grass ad libitum and concentrate depending on the milk production (1 kg/2.5 kg milk), and free access to mineral block and water. Milking times were around 5:00 and 17:00 h. In the AR treatment, calves were separated from the mother right after delivering. Milk was puta in bucket for them to drink and available at 6, 10, 14, 17, and 20 h during the first week. In the RS treatment, calves stayed with mother during first 24 hours after delivering to have colostrum ad libitum. From day 2, they were separated from mother, but about 10 minutes before milking they were brought in front of their mother, and after milking they were released to stay with their mother about 30 minutes for suckling to have the residual milk. They were weighed before and after milking to determine the milk intake. From the second week, in addition to milk, calves of both treatments were given some concentrate and wilted grasses.
Cows in the RS treatment had higher yield of milk and less incidences of mastitis than the AR treatment. In addition, calves of the RS treatment had higher live weight gain than that of the AR treatment. The farmers’ evaluation indicated that RS practice is applicable.