Author : Saitul Fakhri Ranu

Summary : Two experiments were conducted at the Dairy Training and Research Institure (DTRI) FARM, College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines Los Baños, to determine the performance of growing dairy cattle fed with mixed roughage alone and/or concentrate containing either copra meal (CM) or palm kernel expeller meal (PKM-E). Treatment used were T (subscript 1): mixed roughage + CM-based concentrate at 0.6 percent of body weight; T (subscript II): mixed roughage + PKM-E based concentrate at 0.6 percent of BW and T (subscript III): mixed roughage + PKM-E-based concentrate at 1.2 percent of BW; and T (subcript IV): mixed rougage (control), consisting of 45 percent napier grass and 5 percent centro. The mixed roughage was chopped and fed ad libitum in all treatments. In experiment 1, 16 growing male dairy cattle were used to determine the effect of treatment on growth performance and economic response. Highest average daily gain was obtained from T (subscript III) (0.5 kg), followed by T (subscript 1) (0.4 kg), and T (subscript IV) (0.2 kg). Animals given T (subscript III) had the highest dry matte intake (DMI), crude protein intake (CPI), total body weight gain (TBG), and average daily gain (ADG) and more efficient and profitable. All animals gained weight but those under the control (T (subscrit IV)) showed the least performance. Income over feed feed cost per day was highest for T (subscript III) (P10.08), followed by T (subscript I) (P 7.76), T (subscript II) (P 4.96), and T (subscript IV) (P 3.88). In Experiment 2, a 4x4 Latin Square Design was used to determine the effect of treatments on intake and digestibility by growing dairy cattle. Highest DMI (102.62 g/kg.75/day) was obtained from T (subscript III), but the DMD was similar for T (subscript I) (60.96 percent) and T (subscript III) (62.53 percent). The control (T (subscript IV)) had the lowest (P<0.01) DMI (69.07 g/kg.75/day) and DMD (54.09 percent). A kilogram increase in concentrate supplementation decreased roughage intake by 0.33 kg.