How to make dairying more profitable
To make Dairying more profitable proper selection of Breed, individual Cows, proper Management including Nutrition, Reproduction, General managements and Marketing are very essential.
Cost of feed constitutes about 60 -70 % of the total recurring expenditure in Dairy farming. The extent to which we reduce the Feed cost determines the extent of net income in Dairy Farming. Dairy Farming is land based to cultivate and feed adequate Green Forage. The green forage means Cereal Grasses ,Legume fodder and Tree fodder in proper ratio .
A Dairy cow with moderate milk yield requires about 25-30 kilo Green forage daily. This much forage is sufficient to satisfy the complete Maintenance requirement and to produce about 4-6 kilo of milk. For a cow yielding about 10 -14 kilo of milk per day the forage is to be cultivated in 15 cents of irrigated land. For cows yielding more than 15 litres of milk about 20 cents of land is required. So the holding capacity in an acre of irrigated land is 6 cows with moderate yield and 5 cows with higher yield.
Feeding of green forages has a cooling effect on the animal body, more palatable, contains easily digestible nutrients, provides fresh, effectively utilizable nutrients in natural form and is slightly laxative.
Cows yielding as high as 4-6 litres of milk can easily be maintained solely on green fodder without any concentrate. While feeding the forages to cows following guidelines be followed :
- Forage dry matter consumption should be near 2%of the body weight.
- At least 19-21% Acid Detergent Fiber should be in the total ration.
- At least 28-30% Neutral Detergent Fiber should be in the total ration.
- Provide at least 2 Kg of fiber a day.
- Fiber particles should be long enough to stimulate 15 minutes of cud chewing time per half a kg. of dry matter.
- Fiber length should be chopped at ½ inch to stimulate rumen buffering from cud chewing.
- The Grass and Legume Fodders be fed at 70:30 ratio.
- If Tree fodder is available the ratio may be 70;20:10
The Indian council of Agricultural Research at National Level and State Agricultural Universities from time to time release new and improved varieties of fodder crops. Following are some of very promising and very popular fodder varieties cultivated in the state of Tamil Nadu.
The fodder crops like Maize, Sorghum, Cowpea, Stylosanthes, Cenchrus ciliaris can also be cultivated in Rainfed condition.
Before cultivating the fodder the soil testing be done and manure accordingly.
The fodders may be cultivated either as Monocrop or Mixed crop. It is always advisable to cultivate the fodder in Intercropping or Mixed cropping system. If the grass and legume fodders alone cultivated in hedges and furrows the grass should form two rows and legume one row. If fodder shrubs are also introduced , the fodder shrubs are to be planted at 1 x 1 meter spacing in the same plot where grass and Legumes are cultivated.
Followings are the differences in nutritional value of Grass, Legume and Tree fodder.
Crop residues
Crop residues are Agricultural wastes. They are poor in Protein , Energy ,Minerals and Vitamins. Their digestibility is very poor. Straws of Paddy, Ragi, Maize, pearl millets, Sorghum ,Dried plants of Ground Nut, Horse gram etc.,. are some examples for crop residues. The crop residues are fed to cows to fill up the First stomach ( Rumen ) of Cows. They provide some fiber to the Cows.
Mixed cropping : Growing two or more than two crops simultaneously without distinct row arrangement is called as mixed cropping. Mixed cropping also helps to enhance the fertility of the soil, improves overall productivity and produce nutritionally different types of forages required to meet the diversified needs of the livestock from same land.
Agroforestry system: In this system fodder production is taken up with Agriculture. The fodder trees are also an important component in this system.
The Fodder should be Chopped and fed .Chopping reduces the wastage and increase the intake. The fodder allowance should be fed first and Concentrate supplement should be fed an one hour later. The concentrate allowance should be mixed with only small quantity of water and fed.
The use of concentrates no doubt will give the greatest animal production . But this may not be economical as it’s raw materials are very costly and/or in short supply.
The concentrate feed should have high concentration of protein, Energy and Minerals with less fiber and high digestibility. The concentrate feed should have ingredients like Cereal grains to provide Energy, Oil cakes to provide Protein and some fat to provide energy. Agricultural by products like Bran, Hulls, Husk etc,. to provide some protein and to prevent the feed to become a dough mass.
Minerals are very important for the metabolism , health and productivity in Animals. The feed and fodder may not contain all the minerals necessary for Livestock production. So the cows need to be supplemented daily with 30- 50 grams of commercial mineral mixture.
Non-conventional Feed Resources
Fibers are important
1.To maintain the Fat level in milk
2. To maintain the sieve structure between the first and second compartment of stomach of cow to facilitate digestion.
3.To give a sense of satisfaction to the cow that it consumed enough feed
4. Chewing (Ruminating ) the fiber makes the Cow to produce more saliva which helps to maintain proper environment in first stomach to facilitate digestion. While adequate feeding of Cows only with Green fodder maintain the body weight and support 5-6 kg. of milk , feeding of only Crop residues cause body weight loss.
Fibers are important
1.To maintain the Fat level in milk2. To maintain the sieve structure between the first and second compartment of stomach of cow to facilitate digestion.
3.To give a sense of satisfaction to the cow that it consumed enough feed
4. Chewing (Ruminating ) the fiber makes the Cow to produce more saliva which helps to maintain proper environment in first stomach to facilitate digestion. While adequate feeding of Cows only with Green fodder maintain the body weight and support 5-6 kg. of milk , feeding of only Crop residues cause body weight loss.
Fodder should be cultivated as below
Inter cropping : Intercropping is the cultivation of two or more crops simultaneously on the same field, with row arrangement having different growth habits, canopy structure, rooting pattern and offering little or no mutual competition eg. Sorghum + cowpea or Maize + cowpea are the common forage intercropping systems followed in India
- Intercropping of cereals/grasses with legumes helps to improve herbage quality, increase biomass production and economize the fertilizer usage due to enrichment of soil.
- This system also ensures efficient land utilization, suppression of weeds and to protect against aberrant weather conditions.
- The cereals and legumes grown together are rich in carbohydrates and proteins, respectively. Therefore such different fodders fulfill the nutritional requirement of the animals simultaneously
- Intercropping system ensures better utilization of plant nutrients from different soil layers due to inclusion of different growth habit crops
Mixed cropping : Growing two or more than two crops simultaneously without distinct row arrangement is called as mixed cropping. Mixed cropping also helps to enhance the fertility of the soil, improves overall productivity and produce nutritionally different types of forages required to meet the diversified needs of the livestock from same land.
Sequence cropping : Sequence cropping is the sowing of the succeeding crop and harvesting of preceding crop on same piece of land in more or less succession. Growing such crops in succession helps to supply the fodder regularly throughout year. In forage sequence cropping cereal fodder crops like sorghum, maize and pearl millet etc. are rotated with legume fodder crop like cowpea, berseem and guar etc.
Alley cropping : Growing of annual or perennial crops simultaneously with perennial trees is called as alley cropping. From annual agricultural crops farmers get regular income mean while the trees mature and add to the total income from the same land. Forage alley cropping includes growing of sorghum or guar or pearl millet in between rows of subabul help to supply green fodders to animals regularly throughout year.
Overlapping system: The overlapping cropping system is evolved by taking advantage of the different growth rate of different species. It ensures a uniform supply of green fodder throughout the year. The best rotation in this system is Desmanthes + sesame - Hybrid Napier + cowpea - Hybrid Napier. This system of intensive fodder production is economically viable only for 3 years. After three years Hybrid Napier is uprooted and fresh planting is taken up.
Agroforestry system: In this system fodder production is taken up with Agriculture. The fodder trees are also an important component in this system.
There are several models in this system to suit the farmers .Few models are as below:
Silvi culture : Only Fodder trees.
Agrisilvi system : Agricultural crops + Fodder trees ,
Hortisilvi system : Horticultural Crops + Fodder trees
Agrisilvi pasture : Agriculture +Fodder trees +Fodder cultivation
Silvipasture : Fodder trees+ Fodder crops
Hortisilvi pasture : Horticultural Crops + Fodder trees +Fodder crops.
Hortisilvi system : Horticultural Crops + Fodder trees
Agrisilvi pasture : Agriculture +Fodder trees +Fodder cultivation
Silvipasture : Fodder trees+ Fodder crops
Hortisilvi pasture : Horticultural Crops + Fodder trees +Fodder crops.
The Fodder should be Chopped and fed .Chopping reduces the wastage and increase the intake. The fodder allowance should be fed first and Concentrate supplement should be fed an one hour later. The concentrate allowance should be mixed with only small quantity of water and fed.
Concentrate Feed
The concentrate feed is called Productive ration. Feeding a cow with 25-30 kilos of quality fodder support only up to 5-6 kg. of milk. For additional quantity of milk produced by the cows concentrate feed supplement be fed.
The use of concentrates no doubt will give the greatest animal production . But this may not be economical as it’s raw materials are very costly and/or in short supply.
Feeding of the forages alone can not support the full productivity of a cow. To satisfy the nutrient demand the cows be necessarily fed with the concentrate feed. It contains very high nutrient density in proper proportion per unit weight.
The concentrate feed should have high concentration of protein, Energy and Minerals with less fiber and high digestibility. The concentrate feed should have ingredients like Cereal grains to provide Energy, Oil cakes to provide Protein and some fat to provide energy. Agricultural by products like Bran, Hulls, Husk etc,. to provide some protein and to prevent the feed to become a dough mass.
Mineral supplements
Minerals are very important for the metabolism , health and productivity in Animals. The feed and fodder may not contain all the minerals necessary for Livestock production. So the cows need to be supplemented daily with 30- 50 grams of commercial mineral mixture.
Vitamins
The fresh green fodder crops and concentrate feed ingredients contain the Fat soluble vitamins. If cows are fed a balanced ration the cows will get all the fat soluble vitamins. In the first compartment of stomach in cows the feed and Fodder are anaerobically fermented by microbes. Most of the Water soluble B complex vitamins are produced by these microbes which in turn is utilized by the cow.
Non-conventional Feed Resources
Apart from the above mentioned conventional Feed , there are other feed resources fed to cow when the conventional feeds are in short supply or their cost is high. The Non-conventional feeds require proper processing which means additional expenditure. So the use on Non-conventional feeds in commercial Dairy Farming is very limited.
The Feed and Fodder resources must be readied well before starting the Farm. The fodder resources must be established to meet the requirement of cows for whole year with two months buffer requirements to meet the emergency.
About the Author
Prof Dr M Murugan- Consultant, Animal Nutrition, Animeta AgriTech YourFarm . Former Dean, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai. Animal Nutrition Specialist with 35+ years of experience in the field of Teaching, Research and Technology transfer to farming communities. His field of Research is Fodder production with special emphasis to Agroforestry systems and the class of livestock is small ruminant. Dr. M.Murugan has published 43 Research papers in both National and International Journals. He has also published 45 Popular articles ,authored 5 books and 2 manuals. His research articles are cited in several text books. He is the member of several Professional bodies like Indian Poultry Science Association Dairy Technology Society of India , Animal Nutrition Society of India and Tamil Nadu Veterinary Council.
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