Feeding practices and compositional verification of the constituents of growth promoters for cattle fattening in Bangladesh

Abstract

A survey was carried out among 50 cattle fattening farmers covering 11 Upazillas' under 7 districts of Bangladesh and a total of 14 growth promoters (GP) from 9  pharmaceutical companies engaged with marketing  GP were collected for the compositional verification of the constituents from their specification. For cattle fattening,  about 78% respondents used their own labors, 16% dependent on hired labor and  only 6% used both the sources. Majority of the farmers (48%) used  a diet of straw, green grass and concentrate, 40% of them used straw and concentrate and the rest 4.0% used green grass and concentrate. Most of the  (60%)  farmers used only straw for fattening cattle and rest of them (40%) used urea-molasses-straw (UMS) and urea treated straw (UTS), of them 28% used UMS and 12% used UTS. In all the locations, 90% farmers used GP for fattening their cattle,  of them 78% used vitamin-mineral premixes, 8% used vitamin-mineral and enzyme premixes and the rest 4% used antibiotic, vitamin-mineral and enzyme premixes. Only 10% farmers dont have any experience to use GP for cattle fattening. The presence of Ca and P in GP were found all most similar in all the companies but in some cases the values were found higher or lower than the specification. Availability of amino acids, Methionene and lysine were found very close to their product specification but one company failed to maintain their product quality according to their specification. Farmers are still using traditional feeding system but they are concerned to use GP for fattening cattle. Although, companies have maintained product quality but quality control of GP marketed and used by the farmers should be strictly followed on routine basis.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjas.v43i2.20716

Bang. J. Anim. Sci. 2014. 43 (2): 142-146