Body dimensions of primiparous Bali cattle (Bibos sondaicus) supplemented with concentrate at their first three month of pregnancy

Bali cattle are native Indonesian germplasm that are regional and national superior assets having high genetic and economic potential to be developed as beef cattle. Although Bali cattle rearing played a very important role in the socioeconomic and social life of many Balinese smallholder farmers, they had them as side job with small flock size about 1-3 cattle per household . One characteristic of Balinese smallholder cattle farmers is that feeding cattle management is generally relied on roughage-based with cut and carry system. Roughage alone particularly field grass could not meet the livestock's requirement for energy or protein particularly in the early pregnancy of primiparous cattle. Feeding commercial concentrate to cattle is rare among smallholder cattle farmers in Bali. Smallholder cattle farmers sometimes fed their cattle with rice bran with small quantity resulted in various daily gain weights. Bali cattle reared by smallholder famers showed diverse responses to concentrate supplementation when cattle fed ration roughage based. Bali cattle gained bodyweight ranged from 0.13 to 0.24 kg/head/day when they were fed only with field grass. However, when they were fed with roughage and concentrate with 4.578 kcal gross energy and 16% crude protein contents they gained 0.76 kg/head/day . Feeding adequate and balanced nutrients to Bali cattle based on their requirement is important to achieve their standard growth rate . High genetic potential of livestock could be achieved through feeding management that met their requirements resulted in high productivity i.e. favorable growth rate and reproductive parameters. Primiparous cattle are livestock of the prospective parents of the first time mated where they have had puberty so that they required special handling for preparing them as parent stocks. Pregnant cattle required sufficient nutrients so that their pregnancy process went safely until parturition. Bali cattle showed a diverse response to the improvement of the nutritional value of feed. Improvement of feeding management of early primiparous Bali cattle is paramount as they needed quality and balanced nutrients for their physiological status. The flow and distribution of nutrients resulted from metabolism of early pregnancy cattle is complex .