Meta analysis of nutrient requirements of indigenous and crossbred dairy cows in Ethiopia

A meta-analysis of feeding trials was performed to determine the metabolizable energy (ME) and crude protein (CP) requirements for indigenous and crossbred dairy cows in Ethiopia. Data from 17 independently published articles on feeding trials conducted on lactating cows in various regions of Ethiopia were subjected to regression analysis. This analysis aimed to determine the ME and CP requirements for maintenance and milk production. A total of 62 observations and 212 dairy cows were used in the feeding trials. The study employed regression analysis to estimate the ME requirements for maintenance and milk production, while data management and analysis were performed using SPSS 26.0. A Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to assess the strength of the correlation between variables. The regression analysis revealed that the ME requirement for maintenance and milk production for indigenous cows was 357 KJ ME/kg BW0.75, while it was 586 KJ ME/kg BW0.75 for crossbred cows. The CP requirement for maintenance for indigenous cows was 2.94 g/kg BW0.75, while it was 6.37 g/kg BW0.75 for crossbred cows. The study found that the ME requirements exceeded the value of 335 MJ ME/kg BW0.75 per day as recommended by the National Research Council. Therefore, the results highlight the need for nutrient requirement tables for livestock in Ethiopia to improve feed resource utilization and production.