CATTLE MINERAL FEEDING ON MOUNTAIN PASTURES INCREASES PRODUCTIVITY
The research is aimed to study the full value of cattle mineral nutrition on pastures in mountainous areas. The experiment was conducted in the Akhvakh district of the Republic of Dagestan. To conduct the experiment 20 selected by the analogue scale bull-calves were divided into two groups - control and experimental, 10 heads each. The experiment duration is from April 16 to October 12, 2017. Due to the deficit of individual macro - and microelements in pasture grasses in highlands of Dagestan, a mineral mixture that comprised 21 g of sodium biphosphate, 7 g of magnesia usta, 72 mg of copper sulfate and 2,3 mg of potassium iodide was developed. It was fed to bull-calves daily per head in mixture with barley chop. It is found that the use of this mineral mixture in diets of mountain cattle in the highlands of Dagestan allows to increase the average daily gains during the period of fattening by 16,4%. Bull-calves that were fed mineral feeding on mountain pastures gained live weight at 18 months 306,6 kg or it was higher by 11,8% compared to young animals that was not fed mineral feeding with a significant difference (РЈ0,05).