| dc.description.abstract | This thesis describes an investigation into the health
and prOductivity of calves on smallholder dairy farms in
Kiambu District, Kenya. The objectives were to determine the
distributions of important health and production measures,
to describe calf management practices and to relate these
practices to variations in calf health and production.
A two stage random sampling protocol was used. six of
the 14 dairy societies were first randomly selected. Then
from each selected society, fifteen farmers were randomly
chosen from the registered and active smallholder dairy
farmers in the society. The initial participation rate was
98.9% and 90% of the farms allowed monthly visits over the
entire 12 months study period. (July 1991 to June 1992).
During each visit, farm management, health and production
data were collected and recorded.
Overall, 201 calves (104 males and 97 females) were
observed on at least one visit. The crude calf morbidity and
mortality were 26.7% and 21.6% respectively for the first
year of life. Clustering of calf morbidity and mortality did
not occur by farm. Diarrhoea contributed to the highest
cause-specific morbidity and mortality rates among the
calves. The risk factors significantly associated with calf
morbidity were the type of floor and the percent of
lYmphocytes. Factors associated with calf mortality were the
presence of coccidia and occurrence of clinical illness
(p<O.05).
Calf growth was expressed as daily weight gain. The
overall mean daily weight gain was O.207kg. Lower daily
weight gains were associated with both farm and calf level
factors. These were: years of dairy farming, type of grazing
system, the amount of colostrum and milk given to calves,
sex of calf and occurrence of illness (p<O.05). | en |
