Biological and Economic Evaluation of Alternative Dairy Rationsformulated From Locally Available Feed Ingredients and Agro Industrial by Products at Arbegona and Bensa Districts of SNNPRS, Ethiopia

The study was undertaken at Arbegona and Bensa woreda Southern Nations National People Regional State (SNNPRS) Ethiopia, to evaluate the biological and economic evaluation of alternative dairy rations formulated from locally available feed ingredients and agro industrial byproducts under small holder farmers. Twelve second parity and twelve third parity dairy cows with mid lactation mean initial milk yield of 4.36± 0.29 lit per cow per day and average initial body weight (243.78 ± 3.07 kg) was used for this research work. The experiment had three treatments with eight replications by using a randomized complete design. The treatments were; T1, Harvested fresh enset corm (Ensete Ventricosum)) 6kg mixed with 1.5 kg wheat bran, T2,3 kg Sole wheat bran and T3, 3 kg concentrate mix with comprised 33 % noug seed cake, 66% wheat bran and 1% salt. There was significant (P<0.05) differences in crude protein and acid detergent fiber intakes among treatment groups. The Milk yield have significant difference (P<0.05) among treatment diets. The daily milk yield increment per supplemented treatment diets in 30 days of experimental period of time (liter/cow/day) was 2.1, 1.93 and 1.5 for T3, T1 and T2 correspondingly, It could be concluded that Holstein Frisian cross breed dairy cows maintained on a basal diet of natural grass supplemented with 1.5 kg wheat bran and 6 kg/day/ cow chopped fresh enset corm have similar milk yield with the supplementation of 3kg/day/cow concentrate mix for mid lactation Holstein Frisian cross breed dairy cow under farmers management condition; it could be a better strategy to improve the milk yield under small hold farmers with locally available feed resource supplemented with wheat bran is economically feasible at enset production area. Keywords: Locally available, Southern Ethiopia, Supplement, Corm DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/10-1-04 Publication date: January 31st 202