EFFECT OF DAM NUTRITION AND SUCKLING ON LACTATION IN BORANA COWS AND GROWTH IN THEIR BORANA X FRIESIAN CROSSBRED CALVES IN AN EARLY WEANINGSYSTEM IN ETHIOPIA

Forty-four Borana X Friesian F1 crossbred calves born to Borana (Bos i ndicus) cows were randomly assigned to either suck their dams twice da ily or bucket-feeding with 134 l milk over a 57-day pre-weaning period . Their dams were also allocated either to a supplement group with gra ss hay ad libitum and 5 kg per head per day of a concentrate ration or to an unsupplemented group with ad libitum grass hay only. Calves wer e fed in individual boxes in a calf house. The mean birth weight of ca lves was 24.8 (s.e. 1.8) kg. Suckled calves were heavier (P < 0.01) at weaning (47.7 (s.e. 1.9) v. 37.1 (s.e. 1.8) kg) and had faster pre-we aning growth rate (411 (s.e. 30) v. 215 (s.e. 29) g/day) than bucket-f ed calves, Calves which sucked supplemented cows were heavier (P < 0.0 01) at weaning (51.2 (s.e. 2.6) v. 44.1 (s.e. 2.6) kg), had faster (P < 0.01) pre-weaning growth rate (477 (s.e. 41) v. 346 (s.e. 41) g/day) and higher (P < 0.01) daily milk intake (2.6 (s.e. 0.2) v. 1.6 (s.e. 0.2) l/day) than those which sucked unsupplemented cows. Mean concentr ate intake was 302 (s.e. 30) g/day for bucket-fed calves and 341 (s.e. 33) and 408 (s.e. 33) g/day for calves which sucked supplemented and unsupplemented cows. Cow milk production was higher (P < 0.01) in suck led than in milked cows (3.3 (s.e. 0.2) v. 1.0 (s.e. 0.2) l/day) and i n supplemented than unsupplemented cows (3.9 (s.e. 0.2) v. 2.7 (s.e. 0 .2) l/day). Concentrations of milk protein, fat and total solids avera ged 39 (s.e. 15), 49 (s.e. 16) and 143 (s.e. 21) g/kg, respectively an d were not significantly influenced by either concentrate supplementat ion or suckling. Restricted suckling and early weaning coupled with ap propriate calf and cow feeding regimes could be one of the alternative s for calf rearing under smallholder and small scale peri-urban dairy production systems. However, further studies are warranted to evaluate the effects of such a strategy on both calf and cow performances unde r these production systems.