EFFECT OF FEEDING SUNFLOWER MEAL AS A SUBSTITUTE OF COTTON SEED CAKES ON GROWTH AND AGE AT MATURITY IN HOLSTEIN FRIESIAN HEIFERS

A feeding trial was conducted in nine Holstein Friesian heifers to observe the effect of replacement of cottonseed cakes with sunflower meal on their growth rate and age at maturity. Experimental animals were divided into three equal groups A, B and C. The major protein source in three experimental rations 1, 2 and 3 was based on cottonseed cakes (100%), cottonseed cakes (50%) + sunflower meal (50%) and sunflower meal (100%), respectively. These rations were fed to three groups respectively, for 183 days. The average daily weight gains of groups A, B and C were 0.849 ± 0.056, 0.756 ± 0.122 and 0.914 ± 0.027 kg, while feed efficiency averaged 2.72 ± 0.172, 2.73 ± 0.426 and 2.53 ± 0.0.072, respectively. Age at maturity for these groups averaged 376.33 ± 16.83, 425 ± 46 and 333.67 ± 4.84 days, respectively. Sunflower meal based ration showed equally good performance in terms of growth rate, feed efficiency and age at maturity while cost of production of sunflower meal based ration was the lowest