Copyright (c) 2023 Revista de Investigación Agraria y Ambiental
Effect of supplementation based on cocoa husk (Theobroma cacao) on the production and compositional quality of milk in crossbred cows under Grazing
Contextualization: Nutritional supplementation for grazing cattle requires local alternatives that allow optimizing the productive performance of the animals and reducing production costs.
Knowledge gap: Cocoa husk-based food supplementation can be a nutritionally and economically viable alternative for tropical farms that seek to answer the following questions: What will be the effect of cocoa husk-based supplementation on productivity and compositional quality of bovine milk? And will its implementation make it possible to reduce production costs without affecting the production parameters and the quality of the final product?
Purpose: to evaluate the effect of offering a cocoa husk-based supplement on the production and compositional quality of milk from crossbred cows grazing tropical grasses.
Methodology: 10 Brown x Guzerat crossbred multiparous bovine females were used in the second third of lactation with an average age of 7 years and an average weight of 450 ± 38 kg, which were distributed under a completely random design with two treatments: control and supplemented (2kg/ animal/day) and five repetitions each. The supplement was composed of cocoa husk, wheat bran, ground corn grain, molasses, urea, dicalcium phosphate and mineralized salt, offered daily at milking time after a 14-day adaptation period. Milk production was quantified daily and corrected to 4% fat and milk composition every 15 days using an infrared spectrophotometer. The data obtained were subjected to an ANOVA with 5% significance using the PROC MIXED software from SAS v. 9.4. The economic analysis was carried out through partial budgets.
Results and conclusions: supplementation increased (p<0.05) milk production and production corrected to 4% fat. There was an interaction between treatments and collection times (p<0.05) on the concentration of fat, protein, non-fat solids and milk density. The concentration of lactose and minerals increased with supplementation and collection time (p<0.05). Supplementation improved net income from milk sales by USD$0.63 per animal day. Supplementation based on cocoa husks improves production and composition of milk in crossbred cows on Brachiaria humidicola pasture milk, generating higher income.
Copyright (c) 2023 Revista de Investigación Agraria y Ambiental
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