Energy requirements for pregnancy and some reproductive characteristics of Kedah-Kelantan Brahman x Kedah- Kelantan crossbred and buffalo heifers.

J. B. Liang, M. N. Samiyah and O. Ahmad Shokri

Abstract

Comparison of published equations derived from experiments based on different breeds and environments, indicated that liveweight development, amount of energy deposited as fetus and the associated tissues of Pregnancy in cattle, followed similar patterns. Based on this result, the metabolisable energy (ME) requirements for pregnancy of the indigenous Kedah-Kelantan (KK), Brahman x KK crossbred (BK) and swamp buffalo (SB) heifers were estimated using published equations, adjusted for fetal weight and gestation length. Calf weight at birth and gestation length of the three breeds were determined, and the two parameters were found to differ significantly (p <0.05) between breeds. Besides being related to each other, these two parameters were directly related to their breed size. KK, being the smallest breed, produced the lightest calf in the shorlest gestation length (15.6 kg and 280 days) followed by BK (22.1 kg and 286 days) and SB (29.7 kg and 330 days). The daily ME requirements at different stages during the last trimester of gestation for the three breeds were estimated and the requirements at term of pregnancy were 15.1, 19.9 and 27.6 MJ/day respectively for KK, BK and SB. These results suggested that the daily ME requirements for pregnancy at term of pregnancy were 37, 50 and 48% for KK, BK and SB respectively for maintenance of the respective maternal body. These values were lower than the 75-80% ganerally reported for cattle because of differences in the calf weights.

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