Comparative Studies on Stall-Feeding and Continuous Pasture Grazing Systems on Camel Production

Stall feeding on ad lib. ration of dry moth chara (Phaseolus aconitifolius) was compared with grazing on sewan (Lasiurus sindicus) pasture for all the 24 h using 7 and 21 camel calves (1.5 to 3.0 yrs) respecttvely in each group. Growth of calves kept at stall was non-significantly.higher (354 g/d) than those kept.on sewan pasture (310 g/d) over 98 d. The blood picture did not vary between the groups for haemoglobin, glucose and cholesterol, however, serum total proteim, albumin, urea, blood urea nitrogen levels were lower (P<0.05) in stall fed calves than those on grazing. The serum enzyme activities of alanine transferase and creatine kinase were higher (P<0.01) and alkaline phosphatase activity was lower (P<0.01) on grazing. Stall fed camel calves spent 29.80% of their feeding time and 22.62% for rumination as against 65.62% feeding time and 11.70% rumination time on grazing. The nutrient intake of DM, DCP, ME/kg W^0.75 and water intake/kg W^0.82 of stall-fed group was 79.04±1.51 g, 4.44±0.19 g, 0.678±0.03MJ and 12.91±2.78 ml, respectively. Grazing by camel calves enhanced (P<0.05) the soil carbon from 0.07 to 0.23%, available potash from 245.0 to 532.50 kg/ha without affecting available phosphate. Camel calves performed better install feeding system because of better plane of nutrition and there is still enough scope of camel improvement on sewan pasture through adding leguminous varieties, fertiliser application and supplementation.