Evaluation of Biological Treatment of Barely Straw on Voluntary Intake and Milk Yield of Crossbred Dairy Cows under Small Scale Farmer’s Condition

Abstract

The study was conducted at on-farm level with crossbred dairy cows at Kofele district, Ethiopia to assess the effect of feeding biologically treated barley straw supplemented with wheat bran on feed intake, milk yield and economic profitability. Twenty six crossbred cows in late lactation stage with an average body weight of 315.8±52.05 kg were randomly assigned into two groups of thirteen cows per group in a Completely Randomized Block Design to conduct the study. Thirteen cows were fed EM treated barley straw in addition to grazing and supplemented with wheat bran at the rate of 1.5 kg/cow/day (T1), and the other 13 cows were maintained as usually practiced by farmers (grazing + 1.5kg wheat bran/cow/day) (T2). Feeding EM treated barley straw supplemented with wheat bran 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 return increased from ETB 39.54/cow/day in the control group to ETB 61.90/cow/day in T1 group. This study indicated that the intervention diet increased the net return for farmers to ETB 22.35/cow/day. Feeding EM treated barley straw with wheat bran was found to be an effective approach to maximize the utilization of locally available feed resources for relatively high animal productivity during the dry season for small scale dairy producers in rural areas where there is limited market access for milk.

Keywords:  Biological treatment, barley straw, wheat bran, milk yield, profitability