Milk Yield and Composition of Red Sokoto and Weast African Dwarf Does Raised Intensively in a Hot Humid Environment

Six Red Sokoto (RS) and West African Dwarf (WAD) does, raised intensively in livestock farm of Michael Okpara University were evaluated for milk yield and composition in a ten-week study. The animals in their first parity were fed cut-and-carry forages in a cafeteria arrangement between 07:00-08:00 h daily and also were allowed access to concentrate supplementation by 14:00 h. The forage consisted of a sward of Panicum maximum, Centrosema pubescens, Calapogonium mucunoides, Emilia sanchifolis, Tridax procumbens and Urenia lobata while the supplement was a 14.8% CP concentrate ration formulated from wheat, soya bean meal, maize offals, palm kernel cake. Drinking water was provided ad libitum. The does were hand milked daily from 6-8 am prior to feeding and yield determined for each group. Milk samples were bulked per animal per week and analyzed for total solids (TS), butterfat (BF), crude protein (CP), solids-not-fat (SNF) and total ash. Lactose was, however, determined daily from fresh milk samples and data obtained was analyzed using T-test. Results showed that lactose, CP and ash were not influenced (P>0.05) by species; however, butterfat, TS, SNF and milk yield differed significantly (P