EFFECT OF DIETARY CATION ANION BALANCE ON PRODUCTIVE AND REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF COWS

Abstract

Twenty Friesian cows were used to study the effect of dietary cation-anion differences on Milk Fever, Blood parameters, minerals, digestibility, rumen fermentation and milk production. Animals were divided into four groups (five females in each). All groups were fed a basal diet consisting of berseem 30 Kg, concentrate feed mixture (CFM) 6Kg, rice straw 6 Kg & soya bean meal (SBM) 75 g as a carrier for anionic salts/head/day. Anionic salts were used to control dietary cation anion difference (DCAD) of the ration at the following levels (groups): Treatment (1): Control group was fed the basal diet without anionic salts. Treatment (2): DCAD was controlled to be 0 mEq/ Kg DM. Treatment (3): DCAD was controlled to be negative 150mEq/Kg DM . Treatment(4): DCAD was controlled to be negative 150mEq/Kg DM by using Anio - Norel (commercial product ). Animals received treatments three weeks before expected calving date and stopped at delivery day. Results obtained showed that: 1. Rumen pH was affected by treatment, values were 7.5,6.9,6.6 and 7.1 for groups (1,2,3and 4 respectively). 2. Organic matter digestibility ranged between 59.43% for group (3) and 57.23% for group (4). 3. CF digestibility was not significantly (P< 0.05) affected by treatment.