The present study was carried out to find the effect of sire birth weight on the Dhofari calf's breed growth traits of birth weight, weaning weight, yearling weight, pre-weaning, post-weaning daily gain, dam gestation length and calving ease score . Seasonal interaction with the sire birth weight effect on calf's growth traits was also investigated. Growth traits of calf's were classified to seasonal (cold, hot and temperate) interaction with sire birth weight class. Data of different weight records of 558 calf's' and their relative dams sired by 40 Dhofari bulls breed from Salalah Livestock Research Station were used in this study. The different calf's growth traits were classified into three classes according to sire birth weights (high, medium and low). The data were analyzed by multivariate General Linear Model (GLM) using SPSS. Analysis showed significant (p<0.05) effect of sire birth weight class on all calf's growth traits. Calf's of high class sire birth weights proved to be heavier for all growth traits than sired by medium and low class bulls. There was a strong positive significant (p<0.01) correlation between sire birth weight class and all calf's growth traits with the highest being with calf's birth weight. The interaction between season and sire birth weight class showed significant (p<0.05) effect on calf's pre-weaning and post weaning daily gain during the temperate season but none (p>0.05) for the other growth traits of birth weight, weaning weight and yearling weight. Heavier calf's sired by high sire birth class had a significant (p<0.05) longer dam gestation length than those of low class sire birth weights. There was a significant (p<0.05) correlation between sire birth weight class and gestation length of the dam. However, there was no significant (p>0.05) effect of calf's sex on the dams gestation length. Analysis showed that dams sired by high sire birth weight class had heavier calf's and this had a significant (p<0.05) effect on the dams calving ease of score in comparison to dams sired by medium and low sire birth classes.
Abstract. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate two different trials for fattening Dhofari calves and find out which one was more economically profitable .A total of 12 local Dhofari calves were used and divided into two equal groups. Each group consisted of 6 calves of 12 months of age, with an average live body weight (LBW) of 206.7 ±7.48 kg. They were fed for 154 days with two different methods of fattening. In the first method calves were fed 3.25% of their live body weight, 77.5% of it as a commercial concentrate and 22.5% as Rhodes grass hay. In the second method calves were fed starting with 4.00 Kg commercial concentrate with increasing of 0.5 kg for every 25 kg live body weight increase while Rhodes grass hay was fixed by 3 kg. Daily feed consumption (DFC), total weight gain (TWG), daily weight gain (DWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), and cost of production per one kilogram gain (CPG) were measured. The experiment started from April to September. Effect of season on FCR, DFC, and CPG was also investigated. Results showed significance (p <0.05) between the two trials in terms of DFC, FCR, and CPG in favor for the second trial. Results showed there was significant (P<0.05) effect of season on DFC, FCR, and CPG in both trials in favor for the summer season. It was concluded that fattening Dhofari growing calves breed on the second trial would be the economically profitable choice.
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