Productive Performance of Lactating Crossbred Dairy Cows Fed with Wheat Straw-Based Densified Complete Feed Block

Abstract

The experiment was designed to determine the effect of feeding densified complete feed block (DCFB) on the production performances of lactating F1 Friesian x Borena crossbred cows. Four mid-lactating multiparous cows with 2–5 parity having similar milk yield (8–10 l·day−1) were evaluated using 4 × 4 Latin square design for a total of 84 days. The treatments include natural pasture hay supplemented with a concentrate mixture at the rate of 0.5 kg·l−1 of milk yield·cow−1 (T1) and three different wheat straw-based DCFBs in the ratio of 50 : 50 (T2), 40 : 60 (T3), and 30 : 70 (T4). The result revealed that the average daily dry matter (DM) intake was similar among all dietary treatments except for T2 that had lower (P 0.05) but significantly higher (P 0.05) NDF and ADF digestibility compared to T1. The CP digestibility and daily average milk yield were higher (P 0.05) over all the treatments. Milk conversion efficiency was similar (P >0.05) among the DCFB but higher (P <0.05) for control cows. The partial budget analysis indicated that net profit and marginal return were much higher for diet in the ratio of 40 : 60. Inclusion of wheat straw at 40% could be an efficient feeding option for F1 Friesian x Borena lactating crossbred cows managed under indoor conditions. However, DCFB manufacturing and distribution at a large scale requires machineries (chopper/grinder, mixer, and compressor). Further study needs to evaluate the storability and strength of the DCFBs under varying storage conditions and the long-term effect of DCFB on milk yield and quality of improved lactating dairy cows in Ethiopia.