Effect of improving management system on camel milk production

Twenty four lactating she-Camels of the Sudanese Kabbabish breed and were divided into two equal groups of 12 animals. The first group was managed in a semi intensive system by offering concentrates and roughage, free access to water and veterinary care. The other group was served as a control and managed traditionally within the experimental site. The milk sampling started at 10 days postpartum and continued for 12 successive months in biweekly intervals. The she-camels were hand milked twice a day, approximately 12-hours interval. To control suckling Sorar technique was used. Daily milk yield was determined using graded cylinders. The data were analyzed using SIGMA- STAT. computer software as described by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results indicated that the average daily milk yield for the two management systems were 6.85 ± 1.32 lit/day and 3.14 ± 0.66 lit/day for semi-intensive and traditional system, respectively with highly significant (P<0.001) differences. This differences could be attributed to the management system and to the times of lactation from post-partum (P<0.05). The increase in average daily milk yield amounted to 53% under semi-intensive system compared to those under traditional system. The maximum average daily milk yield 8.7 ± 0.94 lit/day and 4.30 ± 0.59 lit/day was recorded in the 3rd month post-partum in semi-intensive and traditional system, respectively. A sharp decrease in daily milk yield in the traditional system after reaching the peak was observed in contrast to the semi-intensive system with a good persistency or stability after reaching to the peak of production. The results indicated that the trend of daily milk yield seemed to increase significantly (P<0.05) from the first day post-partum till reaching the peak in the 3rd month and then declining gradually through the lactation period. The minimum average daily yield was 5.1 ± 0.76 and 2.32 ± 0.39 lit/day in semi-intensive and traditional system, respectively with a range