ADAPTATIONAL STUDIES ON HEREFORD CATTLE IN MALAYSIA III. Effect of Rainfall

NI. PATHMASINGHAM

SUMMARY

The paper discusses the effect of rainfall on the adaptability of Hereford cattle in Malaysia. All animals, treatments, recording and parameters used for the asessment of adaptability in a raining situation, were as reported in part two of this study. In the overall context of the effect of rainfall on the adaptability of these animals, there is a positive significant improvement. The overall mean of RT was 39.17°C. with TI animals, showing lowest RT of 38.99°C. There were differences in RT for animals in the hair-coat clipping treatment, but these were not significant. In this comparison, animals in C treatment. however, had the lowest RT of 39.07°C. The RHTC results showed the same trend as the RT results, woth the overall mean being 84.70 and the best being 88.35 for animals in TI. The effects of hair-coat clipping were again insignificant. None of the treatmeants produced significant differences in the pulse rate of the animals in a raining condition. The RR values also didi not show any significant differences between the management treatments but showed very significant (p<0.01) differences between hair-coat clipping treatments, with the aimals in C treatment having a RR value of 60.6 while the overall mean was 65.7. In terms of BIA, again the management treatments produced no significant differences. Of the hair-coat clipping treatmeants, only animals in treatment C had a significantly (P<0.05) lower BIA value of 3.95, whilst the overall mean was 3.80. In this instance, however, the management x hair-coat clipping treatments interaction produced significant (P<0.05) differences, with animals in CT2 having the lowest BIA value of 3.34. The significance and advantages of rainfall, hence water and spraying or sprinkling, on animals in terms of increasing their comfort and productivity is discussed.

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