FEED SUPPLEMENTATION OF VILLAGE-BASED NDAMA CALVES

Four experiments were carried out in which supplements of locally avai lable proteinaceous by-products were given to young, mainly pre-weaned calves that ranged in initial weight from 30 to 90 kg. The experiment s were part of a programme designed to establish practical and economi cal nutrition interventions for the improved productivity of N'Dama ca ttle under traditional village husbandry in a sub-humid agro-ecologica l environment in West Africa. The supplements included groundnut cake, sesame cake, and cotton seed, supplied during both the dry and wet se asons. While significant increases in growth rate were obtained to bot h dry and wet season supplementation, the responses were both inconsis tent and much smaller than those obtained in other studies with older weaned N'Dama cattle. It is concluded that feed supplementation of you ng cattle should probably be restricted to animals whose liveweight ex ceeds 100 kg.