NUTRITIONAL EVALUATION OF MILK AND FEED RESOURCES AVAILABLE FROM RANCHED (SEBORE FARMS LTD) AND EXTENSIVELY MANAGED (NON-RANCHED) CATTLE DURING THE DRY SEASON

This study evaluated the nutritional composition of milk and feed resources, feed and milk quality of cattle managed under ranching and extensive production systems in Mayo-Belwa Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Nigeria. The study compared cattle managed at Sebore Farms Limited (ranched) with cattle under extensive, non-ranched management. Milk and feed samples were collected during the study period and analyzed for proximate and nutritional characteristics. Data were subjected to descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-test and Pearson correlation analysis. Milk from ranched cattle contained significantly higher fat and total solids than milk from non-ranched cattle. Mean milk fat was 4.71 ± 0.34% in ranched cattle compared with 3.75 ± 0.35% in non-ranched cattle, while total solids were 13.68 ± 0.48 and 12.62 ± 0.46%, respectively (P < 0.001). Conversely, lactose, protein, ash and solids-not-fat did not differ significantly between production systems (P > 0.05). Feed resources available to ranched cattle had significantly higher crude protein (15.25 ± 4.73 vs. 12.53 ± 4.53% DM; P = 0.027) and lipid (3.33 ± 1.11 vs. 2.54 ± 1.13% DM; P = 0.008) than those available to non-ranched cattle, whereas moisture (MO), dry matter (DM), crude fibre (CF), ash (A) and Nitrogen-Free Extract (NFE) did not differ significantly. The study concludes that ranch management at Sebore Farms was associated with higher milk fat and total solids and with feed resources containing greater crude protein and lipid concentrations. However, the findings suggest that milk composition is influenced by multiple interacting nutritional and management factors beyond the proximate composition of sampled feeds. Improved assessment incorporating feed intake, diet selection, digestibility and energy supply is recommended for more precise evaluation of feed–milk relationships in tropical dairy production systems.