Milk production of Dankali camels (Ethiopia)

Abstract

Over a three and a half year period, monitoring of 5 Dankali females kept on natural pasture, enabled six full lactations. six inter-birth intervals, eleven births and the growth of five calves to be followed. In addition ninety-nine milk controls were performed. The milk mean production represents 1,123 liters per head over a 12.25 months period. The persistence rate is high : 97.1 and 74.1 p. 100 over hundred-day periods respectively. The lactation peak is reached at day 56.5 with a 4.4-liter volume. The inter-birth period is highly variable, ranging from 13 to 32 months with a mean of 22 months. The interval between a given birth and the next fertile servicing may be short and lactation may continue up to an advanced stage of pregnancy. The
observed production is compared with total recordings gathered in the same area and over similar types of animal but kept under different management and feeding conditions.