Effect of coat colour on feed efficiency and growth performance of boran cattle in Kenya

Coat colour of an animal has become an important trait of consideration due to its influence on adaptability of an animal to climate change. Certain coat colours in beef cattle have been perceived to confer an advantage to the animals in terms of adaptability to hot environmental conditions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of coat colour on growth and feed efficiency traits with fixed effects in Boran cattle. Five traits were considered; birth weight (BW), weight adjusted to 205 days (WA205), Kleiber Index at 205 days (KI205) and pre-weaning average daily gain (ADG). Fixed effects fitted were sex, parity (6 classes), year season of birth or weaning, coat colour of animal (6 classes). Coat colours considered were red, grey and brown. The least square means for BW, WWT, WA205, KI205 and ADG for the improved Boran cattle in Kenya were 27.50±4.45 kg, 138.38±25.81 kg, 135.17±29.81 kg, 1.01±0.12 kg/kg0.75 and 0.43±0.12 kg/day, respectively. The coefficients of variation ranged between 11 % to 28%. Coat colour was significant for BW and WA205 (P<0.05), KI205 and ADG (P<0.01) while sex was significant (P<0.05) for all traits except KI205. Parity was significant for all traits except BW and WWT. Year and season of birth or weaning was significant for all traits (P<0.001). It is concluded that coat colour affects feed efficiency and growth traits and should therefore be considered in Boran cattle improvement due to its influence on Boran cattle production. Key words: Adjusted weaning weight, average daily gain, climate change, Kleiber index