Sunflower Based Rations for Small-Medium Milk Producing Dairy Cows


Authors

  • M. Chimonyo Department of Livestock and Pasture Sciences, Faculty of Science and Agriculture, University of Fort Hare, Private Bag X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa
  • N.T. Ngongoni Department of Animal Science, University of Zimbabwe, P.O. Box MP 167, Mt Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe
  • C. Mapiye Department of Livestock and Pasture Sciences, Faculty of Science and Agriculture, University of Fort Hare, Private Bag X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa
  • M. Mwale Department of Livestock and Pasture Sciences, Faculty of Science and Agriculture, University of Fort Hare, Private Bag X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa
  • B. Mupeta Plan International, P. Bag 7232, Highlands, Harare, Zimbabwe

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3923/pjn.2009.377.383

Keywords:

Crossbred dairy cow, live-weight, milk yield, ram press sunflower cake, sunflower heads

Abstract

Two dairy concentrates (ram press sunflower and sunflower heads) were formulated locally and their effects on the performance of crossbred dairy cows were compared with that of a commercial dairy concentrate. There were no significant differences in body condition and milk production responses by crossbred dairy cows to sunflower based diets compared to commercial dairy concentrates (p > 0.05). It was suggested that the sunflower based rations can be used as cheaper alternatives to conventional dairy concentrates. The ram press sunflower cake, in particular is an option that may be used by smallholder dairy farmers to formulate local dairy concentrate, which influence dairying to a similar extent as the commercial dairy concentrate but cheaply. More research is required to determine fermentation patterns, rumen microbial protein synthesis, true intestinal digestibility and absorption of nutrients from sunflower-based diets at the small intestines in crossbred dairy cows.

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Published

15.03.2009

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 4 (2009)

Section

Research Article

License

Copyright (c) 2009 Asian Network for Scientific Information

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

How to Cite

Chimonyo, M., Ngongoni, N., Mapiye, C., Mwale, M., & Mupeta, B. (2009). Sunflower Based Rations for Small-Medium Milk Producing Dairy Cows. Pakistan Journal of Nutrition, 8(4), 377–383. https://doi.org/10.3923/pjn.2009.377.383