Suckling practices and calf performance under intensive smallholder dairy production system in a high potential lowland area in Tanzania

Abstract

In Tanzania, farmers use different calf rearing practices but the most appropriate practice remains largely unknown. The study was done at Turiani Division - Morogoro rural district to evaluate calf rearing practiced by the smallholder dairy farmers in 7 villages. Data on milk production, growth performance of calves and mortalities indicate a high degree of adoption of standard management practices and keenness of the farmers on this activity. The study showed that, three calf rearing practices were undertaken by the farmers. The first practice was that of allowing a calf to suckle a dam before and after milking. The second practice was that of reserving one teat for a calf to suckle, and the third one was that of reserving two teats for a calf to suckle. These calf rearing practices and sexes were correlated with calf daily gain and weaning weights. No significant differences were shown between female calves suckled one or two teats in terms of daily gains and weaning weights. However, there were significant differences between female calves allowed to suckle one teat and the rest of categories with respect to daily gains and weaning weights. However, since most of the calves were males, this observation may have been contributed by differential treatment by the farmers. The trend of performance by individual groups of calves in different calf rearing practices was the same for both weaning weight and daily gain, indicating that daily gain and weaning weight are correlated positively. However, female calves were much favoured by the practice of reserving one teat for calf suckling but were severely affected by the practice of suckling before and after milking. From this study, it has been shown that, reserving one teat for a calf to suckle was the best practice.