Assessing the influence of feeding management on milk production in confined peri-urban dairy camels in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Abstract

Two studies were done to evaluate feeding management practices, challenges, and coping strategies in confined peri-urban dairy camels in Mogadishu, Somalia, and the types and quantities of feeds on offer and profitability of the peri-urban dairy camels. In the first study, 50 respondents from 10 peri-urban camel dairy farms were interviewed, each from of the ten farms. They were the owner, general manager, finance manager, and the laborers in charge of feeding and milking. Of the respondents, (84%) adopted group feeding and two-thirds of the respondents (64%) fed their camels twice a day. More than two-thirds of respondents (78%) offered their concentrates mixed with other feeds and provided salt to their herds as a mineral supplement. More than half of the respondents (56%) provided free access to tap water as a source of drinking water for camels. The majority of respondents (64 %) milked five times a day and allowed the calf to suckle both before and after milking. Camel milk producers in the peri-urban system were concerned about camel diseases, feed shortage, and lack of market. These problems can overcome with appropriate knowledge for proper disease diagnoses, feed conservation, and hygiene when managing the herd. The second study was to identify the types and quantities of feeds on offer and profitability of peri-urban dairy camels. A purposive sampling of 12 camels from each farm was selected: four camels in each lactation stage (early, middle, and late). Thus, a total of 120 lactating camels from 10 peri-urban dairy farms were recorded. The types of feeds on offer to the lactating dairy camels varied across the farm categories where the large and small-scale farms were using maize corn, sesame oil meal, alfalfa hay, yellow pea seeds, and sorghum straw while the medium scale were using the same feedstuffs in addition to yellow pea seeds. The quantity of feed offered also varied across the farm categories (P < 0.05). On average, the large, medium, and small scale farms were offering an average of 13.6kg/d, 10kg/d, and 8.4 kg/d respectively, which translated to 12.3 kg/DM/day, 9.3 kg/DM/day, and 7.7 kg/DM/day for the large, medium and small scale farms, respectively. The average estimated quantity of Metabolizable Energy, crude protein, and digestible protein offered among the large, medium and small scale farms were 121.3 MJ ME, 1983.6 g CP and 1400.6 g DP; 83.8 MJ ME, 1227.7g CP, 821.4 g DP and 73.5MJ ME, 1092.5 g CP, and 749.7 g DP, respectively. The quantity of milk produced also varied across the three categories (P < 0.05). On average, the milk production was 4.7 liter in the small-scale farms while the large-scale farms were 5.7liter. Therefore, the medium scale production was quite better than other scales in terms of feeding practice, income and proficiency. it can be used to improve and sustain the milk production of entire peri-urban dairy camel system.