Assessing needs: Forage demands and feed gaps from dairy and dual

purpose value chains

Ben Lukuyu

Workshop on forage and fodder tree selection for future challenges—Linking genebanks to forage use, Addis Ababa, 16-20 March 2015

Overview

• Background to dairy production

• Constraints to dairy production

• Major feed resources for dairy and dual purpose cattle– What types of feeds are used now in different

countries/regions

– General feed constraints

• Feed gaps in Dairy and Dual Purpose Value chains

• What types of feeds are needed for the future. – Focus on the role of forages in different production systems

– But also considering some feed production constraints

Beef animal and meat production in Nicaragua

Demand for milk and meat: E.g. Nicaragua

Constraints to dairy and meat production

• Inadequate dairy animal nutrition.• Quantity

• Quality

• Seasonality

• Inadequate management of dairy animals: husbandry, housing

• Dairy breeds of low productivity

• High prevalence of livestock diseases: Trypanosomiasis, FMD and CBPP

• All constraints interact

Changes in land use 2004-2012

East Africa: Feeding systems are changing

Move towards intensive cattle production

What options do we have to double milk and meat production?

• The choices facing the dairy sector in order to at

least double milk output over the next 10 years

are:

– Increase the number of milking cattle

– Improve the potential of the cattle

– A shift from draught power managed agriculture to

mechanization

– Improve the feed resource

Major feed resources for dairy and dual purpose cattle

Current feed needs: East Africa

0 20 40 60 80 100

Cut Grass

Maize Stover Green

Weeds

Legume Hay

Maize Stover Dry

Grass Hay

Other Crop By Products

Napier Grass

Uganda Rwanda Kenya

Percentage of households with cattle farms growing and using forages.

Farm level feed resources in Tanzania

• Pastures

• Crop residues

• Planted forages

• Collected forages

Dry season feed scenarios in small-holder systems in East Africa• Crop residues are:

– Are about 20% available, relative to their maximum, early in the cropping season

– Peak towards 100% at the end of the cropping season

– Decline to about 60% in the post-harvest season.

• Natural pasture supply begins to rise sooner during the cropping season than crop residues. – Supply rises from about 30% availability at the

beginning of the cropping season

– Peaks towards 100% towards mid season

– Declines to about 50% during the post-harvest season

Current feed needs: India

Important forage (dry and green) used in Bihar, India

Type of feed - Important items

Dry fodder (89% - of which)

· Wheat straw (40%)

· Paddy straw (55%)

· Pulses straw (2%)

· Maize stover (1%)

· Others (2%)

Green fodder (11% - of which)

· Grasses, rogues and weeds (40%)

· Green fodder (maize, wheat, sorghum) (30%)

· Other cultivated fodder crops (Napier grass, berseem, etc.) (20%)

· Legumes (lathyrus, peas, etc.) (5%)

· Leaves (peppal, banyan, Jackfruit, Madras thorn, bamboo, etc. (5%)

• Source: Singh et al., 2013• Results show the importance of dry fodder and dominance of wheat and paddy straw, indicating

that cereal food-feed crops dominate agriculture.

Current feed needs: Nicaragua

CropCrop yields

(MT)

By-product yields

( MT on DM basis)

ME

content

MJ/ kg DM

Available ME

GJ

Sugarcane tops 7,026,599 772,926 8 6,183,407

Maize 498,000 1,494,000 7.6 11,354,400

Paddy rice 460,000 598,000 5.8 3,468,400

Dry beans 225,575 270,690 6.4 1732,416

Groundnuts with shell 204,285 817,140 7.9 6,455,406

Sorghum 60,000 240,000 7.3 1,752,000

Crop residues

Forage type Description

Grazing (communal/ individual)Natural herbage occurring from the clearance of natural forested areas in delicate ecological zones

Improved grasses/legumes Successful varieties: Alfalfa, Stylosanthes etc. Growing interest in Brachiaria pastures (accounts for about 1% of the total area of planted pastures)

Forage legumes, trees and shrubsCentral America is origin of many leguminous trees used throughout the world.

Type of forages

Current feed needs: Nicaragua (2)

Percentages of farmers adopting different feeding strategies

in the dry season by producer type

Feed typeSmall

scale

Medium

scale

Large

scale

Crop residues 66 84 77

Forage trees and shrubs 56 71 77

Cut and carry forages 11 35 62

Grazing - irrigated land 0 24 42

Maize/ sorghum green

forage78 68 92

Feed constraints in general

• Providing enough feed for cattle or buffaloes is a real challenge for millions of small-scale farmers

in Africa, Asia and Latin America

Constraints to feed production (1)

• Environmental: climatic, edaphic, biotic factors – Strong seasonal rainfall distribution leading to dry-

season shortage of feeds

– Amount of soil moisture

– Environmental degradation + destruction

– Climatic variability + change

– In high rainfall areas, forages have low productivity due to low pH and highly leached soils

– Both low responsive dairy animals and dairy farmer unknowledgeable of adequate feeding

Constraints to feed production (2)

• Economic – Lack of market incentives for enhanced feeding

• Political – Land tenure/land ownership – Weak or lack of legislation governing grazing - land and

animal feed resources

• Social – Increase in population (human + livestock) – Cultural behaviour and attitudes – Limited association of producers for bulk purchasing

• Technical – Human resources: limited knowledge + skills

Feed gaps in dairy value chains

Major feed resources constraints & opportunities: Tanzania Dairy Value Chain

Off farm resources + inputs Compounded feeds

• Regulations • Quality control • Feed Manufacturers

Association

Water • Technology available

(e.g., water harvesting, irrigation)

• Access – regulations • Quality

Feed + fodder markets • Hay + stover, loose

grass • Feed-related inputs

(e.g. molasses, urea) • Machinery • Agribusiness

opportunities

Forage seed systems • Informal sector • Formal sector• Regulations, quality

control • Market linkages

Farm level feed resources

• Pastures/collected

• Crop residues

• Planted forages

• Conserved forages

Seasonality

Political + Social• Land ownership• Land use

practices• Farmers’

attitudes + skills

Feed gaps: Tanzania

• Seasonal feed production – Temporal fluctuations result in variable quality + quantity of

forages and drinking water

• Inadequate quantity – Overstocked or degraded

– Lack of dry-season grazing reserve

• Poor quality feeds– Pastures

– Abundant crop residues

• Limited availability & access to forage seed and planting materials

• Forages

Planted forages: Napier grass –the only widely adopted grass in dairy production

Distribution from 2010

Feed gaps: Nicaragua

• Inter-year variations in feed availability

• Poor quality crop residues

• Poor pastures

The variability in meat yield per carcass is probably a reflection of the variability in body condition due to inter-year variations in feed availability. (Cajina, 2013)

Feed gaps: India

• Abundant and low quality crop residues

• Poor utilisation – leading to high wastage

• Limited planted forages in the system (depend mainly on green fodder from dual purpose crops)

Forages in smallholder systems: What types of forages/feeds are

needed for the future?

Forages for the future : Seasonality

• Crop residues are important in smallholder systems but often of poor quality.

– There is increasing need to select/breed food-feed crops with higher quality fodder traits (green/dry)

– Crops with stay green traits

• Because of earlier pasture growth during the wet season we need to

– Select for rapid early growth forages to give them comparative advantage/ maximize use

– Select forages that support higher grazing pressure

Forages for the future: Seasonality

• Irrigated forages are emerging as a result of strong seasonal effects.

– There will be demand for forages to deal with alkalinity in highly leached soils

• Forage and feeds that can dramatically reduce water use

– Water efficient forages (high yield relative to water input)

Forages for the future: Intensive systems

• Need for forages that can be grown as intercrops – hence do not compete for land and labour.

• Crops that are well adapted to intensive farming i.e. dense planting and thinning; relay cropping etc.

Forages for the future: Grazing systems

• Sedentary way of life emerging in extensive systems:

– Will require high yield planted fodder that are suitable for grazing and conservation

– Planted fodder that can easily seed or be propagated vegetatively through splits, etc.

Forages for the future : Diseases

• Disease tolerant varieties

– Head smut disease

– Stunt disease

– And others?

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