Effects of underfeeding on semen quality of Rhode Island cocks.

Fifty Rhode Island chickens were randomly assigned to five treatments with ten cocks in each treatment. Group I cocks (full fed control) received 140 g of a 16% CP growers ration per cock per day. Cocks in Group II, III, IV and V received 98, 70, 42 and 28 g of the same ration per cock per day, representing 70, 50, 30 and 20% of Group I intake, respectively. The feeding trials lasted for 8 weeks during which one ejaculate per day was collected from each cock using the massage technique. The ejaculated semen samples were subjected to both physical and biochemical evaluations. Results showed that cocks that were severely underfed (i.e., Groups IV and V) took significantly longer time (p<0.01) to ejaculate. In addition, ejaculation failures were encountered more frequently with the severely underfed cocks than in cocks that were moderately underfed (i.e., Groups II and III). There were however, no significant differences in most of the biochemical parameters between cocks I all the treatment groups. Ejaculate volume, progressive sperm motility and sperm concentration were significantly depressed (p<0.01) in the severely underfed cocks than in the moderately underfed cocks. Thus, this study revealed that providing Rhode Island red and white cocks with one-halfto three-quarter (i.e., 50-70%) of their normal daily ration would neither undermine their semen producing ability nor affect their semen quality adversely.

Milk production by agropastoral Red Sokoto goats in Nigeria.

The mild yield characteristics of smallholder agropastoral Fulani Red Sokoto goats were evaluated using records obtained from a total of 92 does in 6 herds, collected over a 2-year period. The results indicated that the total yield was 79.8 +/- 3.2 kg, the daily yield 0.66 +/- 0.03 kg, the peak yield 1.21 +/- 0.07 kg and the day of peak production 28.7 +/- 2.1 day of lactation. The milk yield characteristics were highly variable with a coefficient of variability of 38.6% to 69.8%. The characteristics were significantly (p < 0.01-0.05) influenced by herd, season, parity and litter size of the dam. Highly positive and significant (p < 0.01) correlations (r = 0.66-0.99) existed between the total yield and the average daily yield, peak yield, initial yield and day 120 yield. A negative and significant (p < 0.05) correlation (r = -0.33) was observed between the peak day and the initial yield. The non-homogeneity of the milk yield characteristics in Red Sokoto does suggests the possibility of improving their daily productivity by selection of high yielding does. Selection for higher initial milk yield may also improve other milk yield characteristics.