GRAZING AND WORK STRESS ON THE LIVE WEIGHT CHANGE OF MASHONA OXEN



V.L. Prasad(1*), P. Mandebvuz(2), C. Mhonde(3)

(1) Chief Reserach O1licer,Makoholi Experiment Stalion,P Bag 9182, Masvingn, Zimbabwe.
(2) Chief Reserach O1licer,Makoholi Experiment Stalion,P Bag 9182, Masvingn, Zimbabwe.
(3) Chief Reserach O1licer,Makoholi Experiment Stalion,P Bag 9182, Masvingn, Zimbabwe.
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


The main objective of the study is to quantify grazing and work stress of Mashona oxen in two different live weight groups. Twenty four Mashona oxen in the age group of five years were divided into two groups and subjected to two different planes of nutrition to accentuate the live weight difference between them. The resultant High Live weight (HL) and Low Live weight (LL) groups were further subdivided into 3 groups each to give six treatment groups: 1. work and restricted grazing 2. no work and restricted grazing 3. no work and full grazing. Group 1 animals pulled sledges carrying 160 kg for 3 hrs for a period of 21 days. Group 2
remained in pens till they were sent to graze with groups l animals at 910011. Group 3 animals grazed from 06:00h for seven hours. Animals with lower live weight lost significantly (P< 0.05) less live weight compared to the high live weight group. The loss of weight per kg and kg~75 of initial live weight was 74 g, and 322 g respectively for LL group while it was 102 g and 457 g for l-[L group. It was found that loss of weight due to work production per se was 17 kg in LL group and 27 kg in HL group. It was concluded that lighter animals were more efficieut in work production in temis weight loss for a given output of work, compared to heavier animals.


Keywords


Draught, Liveweight, Stress, Ploughing.

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