A longitudinal study on cattle health and production

摘要

A 4-year longitudinal survey of cattle production was conducted in six villages from three provinces in Cambodia to determine the effectiveness of interventions that may improve the profitability of large ruminant production. Two villages in each province were 'paired' and designated as either high intervention (HI) or low intervention (LI). The HI villages experienced a 'best practice' program involving a series of interventions, including implementation of forage technology, education in husbandry, biosecurity and marketing aimed at developing skills and knowledge at the farmer and village level, and internal parasite control. Cattle in both HI and LI villages were vaccinated for foot-and-mouth disease and haemorrhagic septicaemia. Data were recorded every 3-4 months on animal health, production and reproduction. In the HI group, daily weight gains were an average of 30-80 g per day higher than the LI group for all ages in each weight gain period. This equated to 11-29 kg additional weight gain annually and demonstrated that improvements on a large scale are achievable with a multifaceted education-based program. A lower mean daily weight gain of 90 g (95% CI 0.080-0.092) was identified during the dry season, indicating farmers need solutions such as forage technology to meet seasonal feed deficits.