Influence of energy intake during late gestation and early post-calving on reproductive performance of beef cattle

H.I. Mohd. Sukri, M.Y. Nordin and A. Ahmad

Abstract

The effect of energy level in diets of beef cows (at late pregnancy and early lactation) on the reproductive performance was studied. A total of 70 mature Kedah-Kelantan (KK) cows mated to Charolais-KK (CK) crossbred bulls were divided into three treatment groups at late pregnancy and fed concentrate with different energy levels under semi-intensive management system based on Brachiaria decumbens grazing. The concentrate feeds, offered at 40% of dry matter intake, contained 13.0 Mcal/kg (Concentrate A), 11.0 Mcal/kg (Concentrate B) and 9.0 Mcal/kg (Concentrate C) of metabolizable energy (ME). The treatments were maintained until 4 months post-calving and cows were returned to the breeding herd after weaning. Data on reproductive performance were recorded for 3 years. Cows in Concentrates A and B performed better (p <0.05) than cows in Concentrate C in terms of calving interval and postpartum conception. Calving interval (days) and postpartum conception (days) of cows in Concentrates A, B and C were 396.7 and 126.7; 375.3 and 105.5; and 436.2 and 166.2, respectively. Data collected on body condition score showed that cows in all treatments reduced body scores after calving but improved in the third week postpartum. However, the pre- and postpartum body scores of cows in Concentrate A were relatively higher than cows in Concentrates B and C. This experiment has shown that feeding KK cows at late pregnancy until 4 months of lactation with high energy concentrate (13.0 Mcal/kg, ME) under semi-intensive system of Brachiaria decumbens grazing had improved their overall reproductive performance.

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