ABSTRACT
Milk and milk products are an important source of food that provides nutritional energy, protein, minerals, and vitamins of high quality. Feed supplementation could be an excellent way to improve nutrient digestibility and absorption in dairy cattle, resulting in higher milk output and productivity by addressing the cow's nutritional needs through a feeding schedule. Whatever improvements in the genetic makeup of local dairy cows, they only account for about 30% of productivity; the remaining 70% depend on nutrition, appropriate supplementary diet, and other factors management (Garamu, 2019). Supplementing diverse kinds of feedstuffs and giving a well-adjusted diet has a major effect on milk yield and productivity, but not on milk quality. However, milk production efficiency affects milk quality because of the efficiency of nutrient absorption as described by the ingestion of dry matter. The ability to maximize milk productivity can be determined by the ingredients formulated in the feed supplement. However, local milking cows are minimal milk outcomes since the shortage of nutritional quality and unavailability of feed, if smallholders use appropriate supplementation of different feeds and improve the nutritive values of feeds for dairy cows, the production, productivity, and quality of milk from dairy cattle should increase as well.
Keywords: Milk production, Cow milk productivity, Milk quality, High quality, and Feed supplement.
Citation: Hassen A, Ahmed R, Alam MS, Chavula P, Mohammed SS, and Dawid A. (2022). The effect of feed supplementation on cow milk productivity and quality: a brief study. Int. J. Agric. Vet. Sci., 4(1), 13-25.
https://doi.org/10.34104/ijavs.022.013025
