ANN 121: Applied Animal Nutrition-I (2+1)

EFFECT OF NUTRITION ON THE INITIATION AND MAINTENANCE OF REPRODUCTIVE ABILITY

Nutrition influences

• Onset of puberty and sexual development
• Reproduction in females and males
• Pregnant animal nutrition and its effect on foetus development
• Performance during lactation
• The tendency today is for cattle, sheep and pigs of both sexes to be mated when relatively young, which means that in the female the nutrient demands of pregnancy are added to those of growth.
• Inadequate nutrition during pregnancy is liable to retard foetal growth and to delay the attainment of mature size by the mother.
• Incomplete skeletal development is particularly dangerous because it may lead to difficulties of parturition.
• Rapid growth and the earlier attainment of a size appropriate to breeding has the economic advantage of reducing the non-productive part of the animal’s life.
• With meat-producing animals a further advantage is that a high plane of nutrition in early life allows the selection for breeding purposes of the individuals which respond to liberal feeding most favourably in terms of growth, and which may therefore be expected to produce fast-growing offspring.
• But there are also some disadvantages of rapid growth in breeding stock, especially if there is excessive fat deposition.
• In dairy cattle, fatness in early life may prejudice the development of milk-secreting tissue, and there is also some evidence that rapid early growth reduces the useful life of cows.
• Over fat gilts do not mate as rapidly as normal animals and during pregnancy may suffer more embryonic mortality.
• The recommendation for rearing of breeding stock is that animals should be fed at a plane of nutrition which allows rapid increase in size without excessive fat deposition.
• To prevent fat deposition the ratio of green fodder (2/3rd):dry fodder (1/3rd) should be maintained in the daily ration, in addition to concentrate feeds.
• The commonly cultivated green fodder in India are Bajra Napier grasses, Fodder sorghum and the dry roughages consist of crop residues like paddy straw and wheat straw.