Evaluation of Effective Microbe Treated Barely Straw Supplemented with Bypass Protein as Intervention Diet for Crossbred Dairy Animal under Small Scale Farmer’s Condition

Abstract

The study was conducted at on farm level with crossbred lactating dairy cows, maintained under small scale mixed farming system at Kofele district, in West Arsi zone, Ethiopia to assess the effect of feeding intervention diet (EM treated barley straw) supplemented with a concentrate mixture (linseed cake 48%; wheat bran 50% and salt 2%). The study was conducted to asses feed intake, milk yield and profitability during the dry season. A total of 26 households having one or two lactating cows per house hold were selected. Twenty six cows in mid-to late lactation with an average body weight of 315.8±52.05 kg were selected and balanced for their parity, stage of lactation, level of milk yield and divided into two groups (13 cows per group). Thirteen cows were fed EM treated barley straw in addition to grazing and supplemented with a concentrate mixture at 0.5 kg /kg of milk yield/cow/day (T1), and the other 13 cows of one group were maintained as usually practiced by farmers (control) (T2). Feeding EM treated barley straw supplemented with linseed cake and wheat bran concentrate mixture significantly (P<0.01) increased feed intake and milk yield of the cows. Due to the improvement in daily milk yield by 2.31 kg (4.98 vs. 2.65 kg), the net profit increased from ETB 39.24/cow/day in the control group to ETB 49.05/cow/day in T1 group. This study indicated that the intervention diet increased the net profit for farmers to ETB 9.81/cow/day. Feeding EM treated barley straw with bypass protein source was found to be an effective approach to maximize the utilization of locally available feed resources for better animal productivity during the dry season in mixed farming system of Ethiopia.

Keywords: Effective Micro-organism, barley straw treatment, economic analysis, milk yield