Growth and reproductive traits of friesian X sanga crossbred cattle in the Accra plains of Ghana

Abstract

The typical cattle production system in Ghana is predominantly pasture-based. Cattle are grazed all year round on natural pastures with minimal feed supplementation. The animals kept in this production system often experience inadequate nutrition and fluctuating nutrient supply affecting their productivity. There is presently limited information on the growth and reproductive performance of the Friesian x Sanga crossbred cattle (Plate 1) and factors influencing these performance traits. The growth and reproductive performance records of 150 Friesian x Sanga crossbred cattle, kept at the Animal Research Institute station in the Accra Plains of Ghana from April 1993 to October 2009 were evaluated to determine the effect of parity of cow, season of calving and sex of calf on birth weight, weaning weight, growth rate, age at first calving and calving interval. The birth weight and weaning weights of the calves averaged 21.8 ± 0.5 kg and 94.2 ± 3.8 kg, respectively, and were not (P > 0.05) affected by sex of calf, parity of cow or season of calving. Parity of cow affected (P < 0.05) weight of calf at 12 months. Calf weight at 12 and 18 months averaged 128.0 ± 3.4 kg and 159.9 ± 4.5 kg, respectively. Pre-weaning and post-weaning average daily gains were 0.33 ± 0.02 kg/day and 0.23 ± 0.03 kg/day, respectively, and were not significantly (P > 0.05) affected by sex of calf, parity of cow or season of calving. The mean age at first calving was 41.2 ± 1.2 months. Calving interval was prolonged averaging 441.6 ± 10.3 days and was significantly (P < 0.05) affected by parity of cow. Calving interval decreased with increasing parity of cow. The age at first calving and calving interval were not (P > 0.05) affected by either sex of calf or season of calving. The growth and reproductive performance of the Friesian x Sanga crossbred cattle was less than optimum. Improving their nutrition could impact, positively, on their productivity through fast growth, increased milk yield and early resumption of ovarian cycles after calving. Thus, results from this study should guide the development of appropriate strategies for increased meat and milk production in Friesian x Sanga crossbred cattle.

Cow Efficiency, Relative-Birth Weight and Subsequent Pre-Weaning Growth Performance of Nguni Cattle

“…The rate of gain is higher in males than in female calves of different breeds (Nelsen and Kress, 1981;Wilson and Traole, 1988;Rumpf and Van Vleck, 2004;Taylor, 2006;Melaku et al, 2011). On contrary, the sex of calves did not affect the pre-weaning performance of Friesian and Sanga crossbred calves (Obese et al, 2013). The lack of significant effect on R-BW across sexes can be attributed to the fact that Nguni calves have similar BW irrespective of sex (Table 3).…”

“…Seasonal variations in rainfall and temperature are some of the factors that are responsible for fluctuations in beef production performance (Melaku et al, 2011;Obese et al, 2013). Decreased seasonal forage quality reduces growth performance in cattle (Pang et al, 1998;Grings et al, 1996).…”

“…Genotype and environment interaction influences calf body weight gain, depending on the magnitude of the differences between environments (Theron, 1998;Mpofu et al, 2017). Variation in seasonal environmental factors may determine nutrient availability in pasture and therefore milk production and availability (Melaku et al, 2011;Obese et al, 2013) and therefore have direct implications on the cow's productive efficiency. Generally, there is consensus among researchers that male calves are heavier than their female counterparts and the variations increase with calves' age (Ebangi, 1999;Beebee and Rowe, 2017;Mpofu et al, 2017).…”