value addition of feed and fodder for dairy cattle

National Institute of Animal Nutrition and PhysiologyBangalore - 560 030

EditorsN. M. SorenS. B.N. Rao

Soumitra JashC. S. Prasad

Trainers' Training Programme (Skill Development)

Value Addition of Feed and Fodder for Dairy Cattle

June 27- July 6, 2013

Compendium

National Institute of Animal Nutrition and PhysiologyAdugodi, Bangalore 560 030

Tel: 91-080-25711304, 25711164, 25702539. Fax : 91-080-25711420Website: http://www.nianp.res.in

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Compendium

Trainers' Training Programme (Skill Development)


June 27- July 6, 2013

Course DirectorDr C. S. PrasadDirector, NIANP

Course Co-DirectorS. B. N. RaoN. M. Soren

Edited and Compiled byN. M. SorenS. B.N. RaoSoumitra JashC. S. Prasad

National Institute of Animal Nutrition and PhysiologyAdugodi, Bangalore - 560 030

Tel: +91-80-25711304 / 25711164 / 25702546. Fax: +91-80-25711420URL: www.nianp.res.in

andDepartment of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries

Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India, New Delhi

Published by

Dr C S PrasadDirector, NIANP

Designed & Format:Shankar T (ARIS Cell)

All Rights Reserved. No part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any from or by any means,electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher.

DisclaimerNo responsibility is assumed by the Course Director and Course Co-ordinators for the statement made by the authors

in this compendium.

Core facultyA. K. Samanta

A. P. Kolte

A. Thulasi

A.V. Elangovan

D. Rajendran

D. T. Pal

J. P. Ravindra

K. Giridhar

K. S. Prasad

M. Bagath

M. Chandrasekharaiah

M. Sridhar

N. K. S. Gowda

N. M. Soren

P. K. Malik

P. Khandekar

R. Bhatta

S. Anandan

S. B. N. Rao

S. Jash

S. Senani

U. B. Angadi

U. Suganthi

V. Sejian

Guest FacultyK.T. Sampath

U. Krishnamoorthy

PrefaceProductivity and profitability in the livestock sector to a large extent is determined by quantity and

quality of feed as this is the single largest recurring expenditure accounting for 70 - 75% of the cost of production of the dairy enterprise. Rapidly growing livestock sector necessitates a proportional increase in the availability of feed resources to fulfill its demand which seems to be uncertain under the deterioration of land and water resources and the growing demand for food and commercial crops. The diversity in terms of the animals, management, feed availability and feeding systems poses a challenge for the scientists, development agencies, service providers and the policy makers to cater to the growing demand and provide solutions for ensuring the growth and sustainability of the dairy sector. Under this scenario efficient utilization of available feed resources, identification of newer feeds and value addition of agro-industrial by-products will be key in successful and profitable dairy enterprise.

This Training Course "Value addition of feed and fodder for dairy cattle" second in the series being organized by the NIANP, is the fruitful outcome of the efforts initiated by the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India as a part of the Human Resource Development aimed at improving the skills of trainers in the dairy / feed sector to update them with new and latest concepts in the area. The course contents covering major aspects of feed and fodder resources, scope for their value addition for round the year availability, area specific mineral mixture, strategic nutrient supplementation, feed additives, environment-friendly livestock production, quality and safety of feeds shall be very useful to the central and state animal husbandry officers, providing an insight into the latest technologies and could be a practical guide for adoption at field level.

I am sure that this training will go a long way in enhancing knowledge and key skills of officials from the state animal husbandry departments and the milk federation in improving their understanding of the newer concepts in feed resource management and would help them to further train their other officers to maintain the chain of knowledge dissemination. Further, this would also provide a platform for the officials from the field and the researchers in understanding the problems in the field and use the mutual strengths in providing solutions to emerging problems and contribute to the overall development of rural farming communities. I congratulate the course Co-Directors and officers involved in organizing this important training program and also convey my sincere thanks to the Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, GoI who have taken this noble initiative to train the trainers in the larger interest of livestock farmers.

Date: 24-06- 2013 (C. S. Prasad) Place: Bangalore COURSE DIRECTOR

Contents

1. Overview of Feed Resources Availability - Scope for Value Addition 1

2.

3.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9. Dairy Farmers' Multi-nutrient Wand: Urea Molasses Block licks 42S Jash, S. Anandan, S.B.N. Rao, A. Thulasi, M. Bagath, D. Rajendran, P.K. Malik and N.M. Soren

10. Feeding of Total Mixed Ration and Complete Feed Block for High Yielding Dairy Animals 49S. Senani, A.K. Samanta and A. P. Kolte

11. Improving Poor Quality Roughages through Solid State Fermentation (SSF) Technology 55M. Sridhar, A. Dhali and R. Bhatta

12. Manipulation of Rumen Environment for Efficient Utilization of Ligno-cellulosic Biomass 62A. Thulasi, L. Jose, P. K. Malik, M. Bagath, D. Rajendran, N. M. Soren, V. Prasad and K.P. Prabha

13. The Importance of Feeding Exogenous Enzymes in Dairy Cattle 69D.T. Pal, N.K.S. Gowda, N.C. Vallesha and C.S. Prasad

14. Prebiotics for Improving Gut Health and Production in Dairy Animals 74A.K. Samanta, A.P. Kolte, S. Senani and A. Dhali

15. Probiotics for Enhancing Performance in Dairy Cattle 78N. M. Soren, P.K. Malik, M. Chandrashekaraiah, S.B.N. Rao, A. Thulasi and S. Jash

16. Quality Control and Safety of Livestock Feeds for Dairy Cattle 86S.B. N. Rao, K.S. Prasad, N.M. Soren, M. Chandrasekharaiah and S. Jash

17. Rapid Methods of Detection of Mycotoxins in Livestock Feeds 94U. Suganthi, M. Sridhar and A. Mech

18. Nutrition Reproduction Interaction for Sustainable Dairy Production 98

Innovative Feeding Management to Reduce Enteric Methane Emission from Ruminants 102

Management and Amelioration of Stress in High Producing Dairy Cattle 109

Computerization of Dairy Farm 115

22. Using Internet for Technical Information: Opportunities and Precautions 119

Role of Improved Feeding Practices in Augmenting Livelihood Security of Livestock Farmers 125

S. Anandan, U.B. Angadi and S. Jash Alternate Feeds for Livestock Feeding 7 K. S. Prasad and S.B.N. Rao Round the Year Fodder Production and its Conservation for Intensive Dairy Production 14K. Giridhar and S. Jash Value Addition to Fodder for Sustainable Ruminant Production 18U. KrishnamoorthyRumen Bypass Nutrient Technology and its Relevance for Sustainable Milk Production in High Yielding Dairy Animals 21M. Chandrasekharaiah, N.M. Soren, S.B.N. Rao and C. S. Prasad Minerals in Feeding of Dairy Animals and Concept of Area Specific Mineral Mixture 26N.K.S. Gowda, D.T. Pal and C. S. PrasadCultivation and Usage of Azolla as Supplemental Feed for Dairy Cattle 32K. Giridhar and D. RajendranUrea-Ammoniation of Crop Residues for Improving Nutritive Value of Feed 35P. K. Malik, N. M. Soren, A. Thualsi, D. Rajendran, M. Bagath, S. Jash and L. Jose

J. P. Ravindra19.

R. Bhatta and C.S. Prasad20.

V. Sejian, A. Mech, A. Mishra, A. Dhali, A.P. Kolte and J.P. Ravindra21.

U.B. Angadi and S. Anandan

A.P. Kolte, A. Dhali, A.K. Samanta and S. Senani 23.

A.V. Elangovan, K. Giridhar, Sharagouda and P. Khandekar 24. Role of Extension Services in Sustainable Dairy Production 129

Letha Devi and P. Khandekar

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Sl.No. Title Page No.

Overview of Feed Resources Availability - Scope for Value Addition

S. Anandan, U. B. Angadi and S. Jash National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology

Introduction

Productivity and profitability in any livestock sector to a large extent is determined by feed resources and the quality of the feeds available as feed is the single largest recurring expenditure accounting for 60 - 75% of the cost of production. Rapidly growing livestock sector necessitates a proportional increase in the availability of feed resources to fulfill its demand. Limited availability of natural resources - land and water and the growing demand for food and commercial crops are some of the major constraints in expanding the feed resources. Under the present circumstances of a limited feed resources on the supply side and the greater demand for livestock products on the demand side, requiring for higher quantity and quality of feed resources, there is a greater need for efficient management of the all the components of the livestock sector that includes breed, feed, management and markets. The present write-up would cover the various aspects of feed management, although it is needless to say that it should go hand in hand with the other components for ensuring a strong livestock sector.

Feed resources availability

India, with only 2.29 % of land area of the world, is maintaining nearly 17.4% of human and 10.7% of livestock population of the world. Growing demand for livestock products by the increasing population and urbanization is one of the major factors responsible for the steady growth of the livestock sector. Sustaining the current growth trends in the livestock sector and fulfilling the demand for feed without compromising on food security and any additional allocation of land and water for feed production would be a major challenge for the livestock sector. Currently, the estimated availability of feed resources at the national level in terms of dry fodder, green fodder and concentrates is around 360, 619 and 54 million tons, respectively and the corresponding deficits are 25, 20 and 32% (Ravi Kiran 2012 -NIANP estimates). In view of the current shortage and the likely chances of further escalating deficits of feed resources there is a need for a concrete action plan for the feed resource management for the livestock sector.

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Resource wise dry fodder represents the largest amount followed by the green fodder, and the concentrates. Dry fodder mostly comprises of crop residues and is obtained as a by-product after harvesting the food grains. Crop residues have low palatability, nutritionally poor and have to be supplemented with green fodder or concentrates to maintain productive animals. Green fodders are the next largest feed resource and are highly palatable, nutritionally rich and can be fed to sustain medium to reasonably good level of production. Concentrates comprise of grain by-products (bran & chunni), oil cakes and grains and are the most desired class of feed resources for sustaining high levels of production. The various approaches for enhancing dry and green fodders are as follows.

Crop residues

Crop residues is one of the major feed resources and the options for enhancing the dry fodder availability is multi dimensional food feed crop improvement wherein the crop residues' quality and quantity can be improved simultaneously without compromising the food grain production. The existing variations in terms of crop residue quantity and quality for the major food crops can be exploited through simple screening and selecting the newer varieties with superior fodder quality. Currently, the criteria for releasing new variety are restricted to grain yield without any consideration for crop residue quality. By including the crop residue characteristics in the release criteria, the quantitative and qualitative contribution of crop residues can be substantially improved without any additional demand for land and water. Additionally, crop residue management that includes modifying the current combined harvesters to minimize fodder losses, banning burning of straws and diverting for non feed uses can substantially improve the dry fodder availability. Further processing technologies like, chaffing, baling, feed blocks, strategic supplementation and ration balancing can ensure optimum uses of available fodder and concentrate supplements.

Green fodder

Green fodders are the second largest feed resource, and a major chunk of them is obtained from cultivated fodders followed by grasses from common property resources like pastures, grass lands, fallows, cultivable waste lands and fodder trees. About 4.5 per cent of the gross cropped areas in the country are allocated to fodder crops, and it has not changed much over the last 25 years. Common grazing lands (permanent pastures and grazing lands, cultivable and uncultivable wastelands, fallows other than current fallows) occupy 16 per cent of the total geographical area. Area under permanent pastures and grazing lands comprises a mere 3.2% of the total area, and has been declining steadily. The forest cover is to the tune of 21.3 % of which more than 85 % are protected. In the states of Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat and Rajasthan, the land use for green fodder production is around 10%, and the livestock productivity in these states is more. Enhancing the area under fodder cultivation for increasing the green fodder availability is unlikely to happen due to the competing demands for land and water from the food and commercial crops. Enhancing the green fodder availability through improving productivity of cultivated fodders through elite germplasm and better agronomic practices is one strong option. Use of the intensive forage production system in achieving maximum sustainable harvest of nutritive herbage per unit area and time by using Multiple cropping, Over lapping Cropping, Parallel cropping, Mixed / Intercropping systems for quality herbage production. Timely availability of fodder seed is a major issue and development of forage seed production chain from nucleus seed, breeder seed to certified seed as existing in cereal and other important crops has to be taken up. NSC/SSCs to be mandated for fodder seed production targets and seed reserves should be developed for fodder crop security.

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Green fodder availability from common property resources can be enhanced substantially by proper management of these resources as presently most of them are degraded and are poorly managed. A sound policy on managing these common property resources, backed by technical inputs like high-yielding nutritive fodder varieties, package of practices and logistics support in terms of timely availability of inputs like seeds, fertilizers and water management can go a long way in improving the productivity and sustainability of the common property resources. The grazing resources should be developed as per the grazing habits and pasture requirements of particular animal species. For the browser like goats, grazing land can be predominated superior shrubs and tree species while for grazing livestock like sheep and cattle, proper balance of superior quality grasses and legumes may be the major component of the pasture. Further in view of the recurring calamities like floods and drought there is a need for establishing fodder banks across the areas prone for such calamities.

Technological options for efficient utilization of feeds in dairy

Increasing number of milch animals coupled with improved productivity over the recent years and the shrinking feed resource base calls for better feed resources management and feeding technologies. The number of animals in milk increased from 72.6 to 74.4 million heads during the period 2007-08 to 2009-10, and this was also accompanied by an increase in the average productivity of crossbred, indigenous and buffalo milch animals (BAHS, 2010). Increasing productivity of animals will require quality feeds and this is already happening in milch animals in urban and peri-urban areas at least as evidenced by increasing use of concentrates, green fodders and compounded cattle feed. With commercialization in addition to qualitative improvement in feeding of milch animals, a number of technologies are being adopted by the dairy industry for enhancing the productivity of milch animals. The present paper presents a brief note on the technologies that are being successfully used and some of the new technologies that have relevance to our diary industry.

The population of indigenous, crossbreds and buffaloes in milk are 39, 14 and 47% of the total animals in milk and their corresponding share of milk to the total pool is 21, 24 and 55%, respectively. Thus indigenous animals are substantially high in numbers, and their contribution to the milk pool is not proportional to their numbers and is quite low unlike crossbred and buffaloes. The technological approaches for improving productivity would vary with the milch production potential. Technological interventions like bypass proteins and fats are less relevant to indigenous milch animals, and the rest of listed technologies cut across the categories of the animals.

Bypass nutrients

Although the concept of bypass nutrients- protein and fats started in western countries, were targeted for high producing animals, surprisingly in Indian crossbreds and buffaloes with moderate to low production potential, the concept of bypass proteins and fats was found to have a positive production response (Sampath et al., 1997). This in turn resulted in production of bypass protein feeds by a large number of the feed mills in the co-operative and private sector and the steady increase in the quantity of the bypass feed produced over the years. Of late bypass amino acids, especially lysine and methionine are being used in milch animals, and the production responses have been quite positive. Few of the private firms have started marketing these products and with the increasing productivity and the need for better efficiency it is likely that targeted nutrition technologies that is supplementing the required nutrients precisely will catch up in a large way. Compared to the bypass protein, although use of bypass fats resulted in positive production responses, it is relatively less popular. Most of the bypass fats in India is either imported or manufactured by few private firms and its large-scale adoption by dairy co-operative sector is yet to be seen.

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Balanced feeding

Ration balancing

Traditionally the dairy sector is largely in the mixed farming systems, and the feeding practice is generally based on the agricultural residues, by products and other locally available resources. This type of feeding is generally inadequate and more often there is imbalanced nutrition leading to inefficient production and wastage of resources. The concept of ration balancing has been tested widely by the National Dairy Development Board in Western India, and the results have been very positive in terms of improved productivity, resource utilization, sustainability, and feed costs. NDDB has developed user friendly computer software, which can be used for advising the farmers, through a village-based trained local resource person, to balance the ration of animals by using the locally available feed resources. (www.nddb.org).There is a need for wider adoption of this approach, which can have a large positive impact on the dairy production and feed resources' utilization.

Compound cattle feed

Traditionally majority of dairy farmers in India feed the home-made concentrate mix (oil cakes, bran and rarely grains).This homemade mix is neither nutritionally balanced nor fed in adequate quantities to get the optimum production. Further the practice of including mineral mixture in the homemade mix is nonexistent and as a result the mineral deficiency is a wide-spread phenomenon in the field. Compound cattle feed, on the other hand, is a scientifically balanced and nutritionally superior to homemade mixes. Although the consumption of concentrates is increasing in the cooperative and private sector, the gap between the present levels and the actual potential for production and consumption of compounded cattle feed is wide and there is a need for proper communication strategy for encouraging the use of compound cattle feed. Costing of the compound feed vis--vis the home-made mix, lack of awareness about the long term advantages of using compound feeds on productivity and health of the animals, quality of compound feed and non-remunerative prices for the milk are some of the major factors that make the farmers to continue with the practice of using homemade concentrate mix.

Area specific mineral mixtures

Based on the regional differences in the mineral distribution in soils, plants and the feed resources grown in a particular region the concept of area specific mineral mixture was started. Under the all India coordinated project, NIANP Bangalore has successfully come out with area specific mineral mixtures for the Karnataka state, and this has been taken up by the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) on commercial basis and implemented successfully (Gowda and Prasad, 2005). The major response to its use has been in terms of improved reproductive performance besides improvement in the productivity. The technology is similarly being replicated in different regions of the country by the participating centers in the All India coordinated project. Further with regard to the mineral supplementation the concept of chelated minerals or organic minerals are catching up and in high producing milch animals, it was observed that some of the minerals were limiting and supplementation through chelates or organic form has shown positive production responses. Few private companies are manufacturing and marketing the chelated minerals in India and in years to come with improved productivity use of organic minerals will find wider applications.

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Total mixed rations

Conventionally roughages (green/dry fodder) and concentrates are fed separately and due to differences in the nutrient density, the efficiency of nutrient utilization is also different. Feeding of concentrates and roughages together in a mixed form result in a steady supply of nutrients resulting in better efficiency of nutrient utilization and improved production, and this forms the basis for the total mixed rations (TMR). Feeding of TMR improves the milk yield by 10-15%, and the milk yield of animals remains uniform over a longer period with a longer persistent peak yield (Walli, 2009). Although the technology of TMR has the advantage in terms of better production, minimizing wastage and ease of handling (transport and storage) and ability to use a wide variety of feed resources, the technology has not been adopted in a big way. The major reason for this is the cost of processing and the cost of processed feed blocks.

Strategic supplementation

More often the diets of milch animals under the field conditions are deficient in energy and at times protein may also be deficient. Identifying the limiting nutrient and supplementing energy in the form of cereal grains (maize, sorghum, finger millet) or protein in the form of oil cakes can improve the milk production by half to one liter per animal (Chandrasekhariah et al ., 2008). This strategy has been successfully tested under farmer's field conditions with different roughage sources paddy, finger millet and sorghum stover based diets in Maharasthra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh under the National agriculture Technology Project. This approach can be easily adapted to different feeding situations in the different parts of country using locally available energy and protein supplements.

Alternate feed resources

Efficient utilization of feed resources that are available and generated locally reduces the feeding costs and is highly desirable. A wide variety of feed resources are available in different agro eco regions, and their efficient utilization can help in improving the production and profitability. As an example, there is a shortage of dry roughage in coastal Karnataka districts and dairy farmers generally buy paddy straw that is transported from neighboring districts and feed their dairy animals. During the recent past few years, the price of paddy straw became very high (7-9 Rs/kg), and the farmers were finding it difficult to manage. To address this problem NIANP developed a technology to make use of the areca sheath as dry fodder substituting paddy straw using a small-scale feed processing unit and the farmers from the region have accepted and adopted this technology. This technology is being taken up by the Milk federation in a bigger way in the coastal districts of Karnataka where there is a shortage of dry fodder and areca sheath is available in plenty. This is just one example to show how the field problems can be addressed by appropriate technical interventions and institutional support. Certainly, with new crops being introduced and processing of agricultural produce, there are more opportunities for utilizing different locally available feed resources in different production systems and all that is required is appropriate technical and institutional support to make these technologies successful and viable.

In addition to the above approaches, there is a strong need for better management of all classes of dairy animals in terms of the proper care and feeding of animals during different stages of the life cycle as they can have an important bearing on the age at puberty, persistency of peak yield, inter calving intervals, health and overall productivity and profitability in dairy. Managing fodder resources should go hand in hand with scientific livestock management that includes enhancing the productivity levels of low producers and ensuring timely occurrence of production cycles like insemination, calving and lactation cycle as this can ensure that animals are

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not marinated in unproductive conditions leading to losses in monetary terms and draining the limited feed resources. To summarize, the potential and demand of dairy in India is enormous and better management of feed resources and feeding is an important strategy which needs to be ably supported by appropriate policy and institutional interventions in other major aspects of dairy like- breed and marketing in improving the productivity and profitability.

References

BAHS. 2010. Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics AHS series #12. Government of India. Department of Animal Husbandry Dairying and Fisheries, Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi.

Chandrasekharaiah, M., Sampath, K T and Praveen, U S. 2008. Effect of feeding bypass protein on milk production performance in crossbred cows. Indian J Anim Sci, 78: 527-530.

Gowda, N.K.S and Prasad, C.S. 2005. Macro and micro nutrient utilization and milk production in crossbred dairy cows fed ragi and paddy straw as dry roughage source. Asian Australasian Journal of Animal Science. 18: 48-53

Sampath, K. T., Ramachandra, K.S. and Anandan, S. 2005. Livestock feed and fodder resources of India and strategies for their judicious utilization: A review. Indian J Anim Sci 2005, 75, 1438-43.

Sampath, K.T., Prasad, C.S., Ramachandra, K. S., Sundarshan, K and Subba Rao. 1997. Indian J Anim Sci. 67:706-708.

Walli, T.K. 2009. Crop residue based densified feed block technology for improving ruminant productivity. In satellite symposium on fodder technology held at New Delhi.pp67-73.

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Alternate Feeds for Livestock FeedingK. S. Prasad and S.B.N. Rao

National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology

Feed represents the largest single expense input for livestock production. Livestock producers look for low-cost feed alternatives, especially when traditional feeds are expensive. Many of these alternative feed are by-products and waste products from the processing of various food and fiber crops, or crop residues, tree leaves, etc. These alternatives feed can fit into a feeding program as the protein supplement, energy, roughage sources, as a replacement for part of the ration. Before supplementing alternate feeds several factors should be considered to use in livestock diets.

Some factors that should be kept in mind when selecting and using alternative feeds for animal feeding

1. Consistency in availability. The supply and quality of many alternative feeds are inconsistent.

2. Nutrient composition and nutrient availability. Alternative feeds, in general, are more variable in composition and quality than traditional feeds such as corn.

3. Consistency of composition. Composition can vary not only from source to source, but it also can vary from lot to lot, or even within the same lot from the same source.

4. Suitability. Be sure that the alternative feed is suitable for the class of animals to be fed e.g., a bulky, low-nutrient-density feed may not be desirable for growing animals but may be suitable for mature animals.

5. Perishability. Factors that can influence perishability include moisture level, fat content and composition, storage method, storage management, storage time, etc.

6. Freedom from health hazards. Feeds can contain toxic substances, disease organisms, and/or other contaminants. Do not use contaminated feed unless you can eliminate or neutralize the contaminants inexpensively.

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7. Effect on end product. The alternative feed when included in the diet should not harm the end product. It should not affect the taste and/or quality of the product or compromise food safety.

8. Legality. Be aware that some feeds such as meat and bone meal derived from ruminant animals (cattle, sheep) are illegal to feed to cattle. Also, be aware that some pesticides used in crop production may make crop residues unsuitable for cattle and illegal to feed to them.

9. Cost. In addition to purchase price, consider added costs associated with the use of an alternative e.g. transportation, special handling and processing, and storage.

I. Non-conventional protein feedstuffs

Oil cakes and meals

Guar meal

Guar meal is the by-product after extraction of gum from guar (Cyamopsis tetragondoba) seeds. It consists of the outer seed coat and the germ of guar seeds. It is a potential source of protein and has been used to feed livestock and poultry. It contains about one and a half times more protein than guar seed and is comparable to that of other oil cakes. It can induce chronic diarrhoea when fed as the sole concentrates to growing calves. Other two deleterious factors in guar seed meal are that the meal has a residual gum which is an indigestible polysaccharide that leads to sticky faeces. Attempts are now being made to reduce the gum content in the meal which tends to have a growth depressing effect. The second is that it has a trypsin inhibitor.

Neem seed cake

Neem seed cake is produced from neem (Azadirachta indica) seeds after extraction of the oil. It is estimated that about 300,000 tons of neem seed cake are available annually in India. Experiments have been carried out in NIANP and showed that up to 50% of soybean meal could replaced with neem cake without any adverse effect on the growth of sheep.

Palm kernel cake

Palm kernel cake (PKC) like rice bran, is valuable in supplying both dietary energy and protein, but is used mainly as a protein feed. However, the protein content is low, although its quality is high. It also has poor palatability. The high fibre content makes it less suitable for feeding non-ruminants. It has often been found to raise the fat content in milk. The ME content of PKC for poultry on as feed basis was 5.61 MJ/kg. One of the problems concerning the feed is the variable quality, partly due to the presence of the shell content.

Rubber seed meal

Rubber seed meal is a valuable protein source and is available, notably in South India. The crude protein content is about 25%. An assessment of amino acid content suggests that the methionine content is lower than in coconut cake and palm kernel cake, but the lysine and cystine contents are higher. The main limitation in rubber seed meal, however, is the presence of hydrocyanic acid - up to 540 ppm. However, both heat treatment and storage can be used to reduce it. 20% dietary level has been found satisfactory in diets for layers provided it is suitably supplemented with other protein sources, and ME value of 7.49 MJ/kg for the meal was reported.

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Sal seed meal

Sal seed meal is a by-product from sal (Shorea robusta). Sal seeds have valuable oil content, and the residual meal is therefore, free from most of the fat. The meal has about 10 to 15% crude protein and about 25 to 27% crude fibre. The tannin content appears to be variable, 3.5 to 7.6%, and ME value of 11.10 MJ/kg. The use of the meal in livestock rations has been reviewed and concluded that it is comparable to that of poor-quality roughages.

Tamarind seed hulls

The seeds contain 30-45% red hulls and 60-65% white kernel. The hulls and kernels have about 9.1 and 15.4% crude protein and 11.3 and 1.5% crude fibre respectively. The seed hulls are palatable and can replace 10-15% of maize in the concentrate mixture of crossbred calves. In addition, it appears that hulls rich in tannins (13 to 15%) helped in improved utilization of the groundnut cake component of the ration, perhaps forming a protective coat for groundnut protein. Kernels, on the other hand, can replace 95% of the maize component of concentrate mixture in growing cross-bred calves. The DCP and TDN contents of tamarind seed were 1.256 and 63.9 % respectively.

II. Non-conventional feeds from field and plantation crops

Rice husk

Rice husk or hulls constitute another by-product of rice production. Although these are not as important as rice straw or rice bran for animal feeding in nutritional value, especially to ruminants a valuable roughage source. In rice milling, approximately 17% of the paddy, yield results in the husk. Attempts have been made to feed the husk to animals. For pigs and poultry, small quantitys of finely ground rice husk was used as a diluent of other high-energy feeding stuffs. In India, rice husk has been substituted for rice straw in diets for 13-15 month-old Hariana Jersey calves, and it was observed that the rate of growth declined to 42.5, 65.8 and 48.1% at 33, 66 and 100% levels of substitution compared to the control. Attempts have also been made to increase the nutritive value of rice husk by increasing the crude protein content through the process of ammoniation, de-lignification and de-silication.

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum)

Bagasse

Bagasse, the residue after juice extraction from the sugarcane plant, is an important by-product from sugarcane cultivation in a number of countries in the region. It constitutes approximately 15-20% of sugarcane tops with a moisture content of about 50%. At present, the material is used mainly as a fuel in sugar factories, and on a limited scale for feeding animals. Balanced diets with 20 to 30% bagasse levels for cattle produced rapid and economic gains. In Pakistan, 10% bagasse in the diet produced economical live weight gain in bullocks.

Banana

There are two by-products from banana cultivation that are potentially valuable feeds: banana rejects or wastes and banana stem. These are produced in significant quantities in banana growing regions. Waste

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bananas are fed directly to ruminants and pigs. Banana stems are another by-product of banana cultivation. The value of the stems is as a source of minerals, which are concentrated in the pith of the stems.

Cassava

Two by-products are available from cassava roots; one is cassava peelings, which are usually discarded during the manufacture of cassava chips for feeding animals, especially ruminants. Quite often the peelings are not removed and are a component of the chips. The second by-product is cassava pulp or waste, due to the manufacture of cassava flour. This waste is usually collected wet from the factories and fed directly with a protein concentrate. It can be dried and then sell it as an animal feed. In India, cassava pulp replaced 50% of the ragi flour in diets for layers, which have been shown to lay about 12% more eggs. Cassava residue fed with urea, and molasses have also been found suitable for growing lambs in India.

Coffee

Two by-products are produced from the coffee plant: coffee hulls and coffee pulp. The utilization of both by-products is relatively unimportant at the moment mainly due to their low availability, but this situation could possibly improve in time with increased yield. In India, spent coffee, or by product from the coffee extraction plant has been found to contain 16.3% crude protein, 12.7% ether extract and 38.4% crude fibre. When fed to female buffalo calves, it did not furnish adequate metabolisable energy. Of the two, coffee hulls are much poorer in nutritive value probably due to the high lignin content.

Sago (Metroxylon spp.)

The sago palm produces valuable carbohydrate by-product feeds. These include unprocessed sago pith and sago refuse produced from the manufacture of sago starch. The process starts with the use of sago trunks from which the bark is first removed. Over 90% of the material is then used to produce the sago rasp from which about 20% sago starch is produced. The remainder of about 80% is sago waste.

III. Non-conventional feeds from tree crops

Cocoa

Several studies have been reported concerning the utilization of cocoa pod husks (CPH) in diets for poultry, pigs and in ruminants. CPH has been used in diets for farm livestock in several studies, comparing CPH to cassava meal and maize; it was found that cows fed CPH produced a comparable yield of milk to those fed maize. Sheep and goats can tolerate approximately 25% cocoa pods in maintenance diets. The pods were used to replace cassava.

Oil palm

Oil palm by-products are emerging as important new feeds. This is associated with the rapidly expanding land area under the crop in this country.

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Palm press fibre (PPF)

The digestibility of PPF varying at levels from 10 to 60% was determined in balance trials. The digestibility of dry matter was highest with 10% inclusion of PPF. Both crude protein and crude fibre digestibility decreased with increasing level of PPF. Ether extracts digestibility increased with increasing level of PPF inclusion, and significant differences were noted between treatments. It was concluded from these studies that the optimal level of PPF inclusion of 10%.

Palm oil mill effluent (POME)

POME is a general term which refers to the effluent from the final stages of palm oil production in the mill. It includes various liquids, dirt, residual oil and suspended solids. It contains about 95% water. One of the problems concerned with feeding of POME is the high moisture content. In order to increase the solids content for animals, attempts have been made to reduce the moisture content in the effluent. Palm oil mills are using the decanter system to provide a different type of by-product in the form of palm oil solids (POS). The digestibility of the dry matter of POME in diets containing 10 to 60% level was high (87.7%), and significant difference existed between treatments. A 10% level of POME gave the best results, and this was also consistent with the highest digestibility of energy.

IV. Non-conventional feedstuffs from fruit processing

Mango kernel

Mango seed kernels are by-products of mangoes (Mangifera indica L) used for human consumption. It comprises the seeds and kernels and possibly also the skins. In countries such as in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh where mangoes are abundant, these by-products are also available in quite large quantities. India alone produces an estimated 1.0 - 1.5 million tons of the by-products. It has been reported that a 10% level of inclusion is optimum for dairy cattle, which produced a daily milk yield of 8 kg/day. Early work indicated that mango seed kernel had a DCP content of 6.1% and a TDN content of 50.0%. One limiting factor in this feed is the presence of about 5 - 10% of tannins.

Pineapple wastes

Pineapple cultivation and canning of the fruits produce large volumes of waste materials of potential value for livestock feeding. Its nutritive value is equivalent to cereal grains on a dry matter basis. An alternative approach has been used in Malaysia: ensiling the pineapple wastes together with poultry litter to feed beef cattle. The utilization of the wastes not only from the canning process but also the fibrous residues (leaves and stems) at harvesting time thus represents a potential possibility.

V. Leaves of field and tree crops

Leaves of field crops

Leaves from field and tree crops are important non-conventional feedstuffs that are extensively used for feeding ruminants. A discussion of some of the more important ones is therefore relevant.

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Banana leaves (Musa sp.)

Banana leaves are very commonly fed to ruminants, especially goats, throughout the region. Usually, the leaves are fed when the trees are chopped following fruit harvesting. The leaves are palatable, The DCP of banana stems is inferior to that of banana leaves.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta) leaves

Cassava leaves are emerging to be valuable feedstuffs. They have not been utilized to any great extent in the past because of the presence of polyphenol inhibitors, cyanogenic glucosides and tannins which are toxic. But this depends on the variety used, since higher levels of HCN are found in the "bitter" varieties.

Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) leaves

Jackfruit leaves are very extensively used for feeding cattle and sheep, and particularly goats in many countries in the tropics. An assessment of nutritive value indicated a DCP and TON content of 2.6% and 21.4%.

Jute (Corchorus)

Although jute, (Corchorus) is cultivated mainly as a fibre crop in eastern India, it produced leaves that are useful to ruminants. Similar to cassava leaves which have a toxic HCN content depending on variety, the leaves of the Capsularies variety are "bitter" while those of the Ditorius variety are "sweet" and edible. The DCP and TDN contents were 1.40 and 60.6% respectively. Feeding Ditorius leave hay to Sindhi calves gave an average daily gain 500 g compared to 433 g per day for the control diet without the leaves.

Pigeon pea leaves (Cajanus cajan)

Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) is a valuable legume useful for both human and animal nutrition. The principal product of the plant is seed which is used for human consumption. But the plant is also useful as a source of fodder especially to ruminants. Zebu cattle grazing on pangola grass/ pigeon pea grown gained an average of 29 kg in 93 days during a severe drought whereas cattle on the grass alone lost weight.

Spent tea leaves

Spent tea leaves (STL) are by-products of the tea industry. STL contains approximately 30% crude protein in the dry matter. It has been shown that about 7% of the total DMI can be satisfactorily used as an N supplement for NaOH treated straw and a saving of up to 25% in cost.

Sun hemp (Crotalaria juncea)

Sun hemp leaves are valuable feeds. Though Crotalaria juncea is non-toxic, but other varieties are toxic. Sun hemp is commonly cultivated for fibre production as a soil cover and also as a green manure. It contains 13.4% DCP and 58.9% TDN fed to sheep. The corresponding values for goats were 10.3% DCP and 44.6% TDN, and for cattle 12.7% DCP and 66.0% TDN. Sun hemp meal at an 8% level in chick diets was found to give maximum weight gains.

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Water hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes)

Water hyacinth is an aquatic plant and is found throughout the region, notably in India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. It grows rapidly and has tended to clog streams and ponds in areas where there is much surface water as in Bangladesh and Thailand. The feed has been traditionally used especially by Chinese farmers, after cooking it, to feed pigs in the densely populated pig rearing areas of the Region as in Thailand and Malaysia. However, this application represents only a fraction of the water hyacinth used in this way.

Conclusion

The time has come to explore and utilize the non conventional feeds, even available in small quantities, should be utilized region-wise so that can meet the requirement of feeds for livestock and reduces the competition between human and livestock for common food grains. Judicial use of land and water resources is the need of the hour. The ground portion in plantation crops like rubber, coconut, palm, areca nut, etc. could be used for different suitable cultivated legume and non legume fodders like shade tolerance, etc., according to the age/growth of the main crop.

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Round the Year Fodder Production and its Conservation for Intensive Dairy

ProductionK. Giridhar and S. Jash


Green fodder is the second largest feed resource for the country. It is the first choice for economic milk production. The profitability of livestock rearing is dependent on the sources of feed and fodder, as 65-70% of the total cost is attributed to feed. Any saving in feeding cost would directly contribute to increase in profitability. Green fodder is the essential component of feeding high-yielding milch animals to improve the milk production.

The benefits of balanced feeding of milch animals can be appreciated within a short span of time, in the form of improved milk production. By using good-quality forage, particularly leguminous fodder, feeding of concentrate can be reduced significantly. The area under fodder crops is declining in various states as shown in the following table, adding further to the problem of deficit of green fodder availability in the country.

Table 1. Area under fodder crops ('000 hectares)

Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India

There is an urgent need to improve the productivity of existing acreage under fodder crops by improving cropping intensity. For ensuring uninterrupted supply of green fodder throughout the year, it is essential to have proper cropping plan with different fodder crops in an overlapping system to obtain economically viable maximum forage yield. Selection of high-yielding perennial grass like hybrid napier or guinea grass as the main component of the system is ideal to ensure continuous supply of green fodder. Providing irrigation at regular intervals after the cessation of rains will ensure better biomass yields. A high

State 2001 2011 AP 104 85 Gujarat 1103 821 Karnataka 46 35 Punjab 715 540

All India 8702 7769

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forage yielding legume like Berseem suits well for states like Punjab, Haryana, U.P, etc. for cultivation during rabi season. All India coordinated research project on forage crops conducted experiments on different fodder cropping systems in various parts of the country and suggested suitable rotations. Some of the recommended cropping systems for various regions are given in Table 2.

Table 2. Year round fodder production systems

In Southern states, if land is limited and irrigation facilities are minimal; a small farmer can opt for inter-cropping of cowpea both in kharif and rabi seasons (one or two rows) in hybrid napier, bajra, spaced at 100 50 cm. In dry land areas, relying on crop production alone is risky due to the vagaries of monsoon. A tree-cum-crop farming system is appropriate for such situations. Alley cropping, a version of agro-forestry system, can meet the multiple requirements like food, fodder and fertilizer. Alley cropping is a system in which food crops are grown in alleys formed by hedge rows of trees/shrubs. The hedge rows are cut back at planting and kept pruned during cropping to prevent shading and to competition with food crops. Subabul or Gliricidia are ideal as the hedge rows. Drought-tolerant grain crops like Sorghum or Bajra can be selected for cultivation in the alleys during the monsoon season. A few important details like suitable soil, seed rate, green fodder yield, etc., for major fodder crops are given in Table 3.

Region/Centre Suitable Crop rotations

I. Northern region Pantnagar (U.P) - (Tarai region, red and yellow soils) Hissar ( Haryana) -(semi-arid, sandy soils)

1. Dinanath grass - Berseem - Maize + cowpea 2. Napier bajra hybrid + Subabool 1. Napier bajra hybrid + Berseem 2. Napier bajra hybrid + Lucerne

II. Central and Western regions Jhansi (U.P) - (Semi-arid, red soils) Jabalpur (M.P) - (Sub-humid, black soils)

1. Napier bajra hybrid + Cowpea - Cowpea -Berseem. 2. Cowpea - sorghum + cowpea - Berseem. 1. Napier bajra hybrid + cowpea - Cowpea -Berseem. 2. Sorghum + cowpea- Berseem + sarson -Jowar + cowpea.

III. Eastern region Kanke (Bihar) (sub-humid, red acid soils) Kalyani (West Bengal) (Sub-humid, alluvial soils)

1. Bajra +cowpea - Maize + cowpea - Oats. 2. Maize + cowpea - Jowar + cowpea - Berseem + sarson. 1.Maize + cowpea - Deenanath grass oats. 2. Maize + rice bean - Berseem - Sarson.

IV. Southern region Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) (Semi arid, black soil) Vellayani (Kerala) ( humid, red soils)

1. Napier bajra hybrid + hedge lucerne. 2. Sorghum + cowpea- Maize +cowpea- Maize + cowpea. 1.Guinea grass 2.Congosignal grass in Coconut gardens

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Table 3. Details of major fodder crops

Crop and important varieties Suitable soils Seed rate (kg/ha) and spacing

Harvesting time (days after sowing)

Green fodder yield (q/ha)

Jowar - Pusa chari, MP chari, Ksheerasagar, PC-6,9 and 23, HC-171 and 260, Co-27 and CoFS -29

Sandy loam to clay

40 30 15 cm

80-90 (late maturing varieties) 65-75 (early varieties)

300-400 (single cut) 500-750 (multi cut)

Maize - African tall, APFM-8, J-1006 and VL-54 Composites like Vijay, Moti and Jawahar

Loam to silty clay loam

40 30 15 cm

75-90 (late) 60-75 (early)

350-550

Bajra - Giant bajra, Rajbajra chari-2, BAIF Bajra-1, AVKB-19, Deenabandhu & Co-8

Sandy loam to loamy sand

10 25 10 cm

60-75

250-325

Cowpea - BL-2, UPC-4200,5286 and 5287,IGFRI-450, Shweta, Co-5 and CoFC-8

Sandy loam to loamy sand

25 30 x 15 cm

60-80

150-200

Lucerne - Anand-2 and 3, Type-9, RL-88 and Co-1

Loamy soils with good drainage

15 25 cm-solid sowing

First cut 75 to 90 days after sowing. Subsequent cuts at about 30 days interval.

700-750

Napier-bajra hybrid - Sampoorna, IGFRI- 3 and 6, RBN-1, PBN-83, Co-1,3 and 4, BH-18 & PNB-233

Sandy loam to clay loam

40,000 root slips or stem cuttings 50 x 50 cm

First cut at 65 to 75 days. Subsequent cuts at about 40 days interval.

1600-2000

Guinea grass - Riversdale, Macuenni, Hamil, PGG-19 and 101, Co-1 and 2, BG-1 and 2

Loam to sandy loam

Seeds @ 2.5 kg/ha or 60,000 root slips

First cut 75 days. Subsequent cuts at about 45 days interval.

1100-1500 (Shade tolerant and hence, suitable for orchards and agro-forestry systems)

Para grass Loam to

sandy loam

40,000 root slips 50 x 50 cm

First cut after 80 days and further cuts at 45 days interval.

700-900 (Performs well even under waterlogged conditions)

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Conservation of fodder

Conserving the excess fodder produced during plush season is essential to tide over the limited availability of green fodder during the lean periods.

Hay

The primary object in hay making is to reduce the water content of the green herbage so that the same can be preserved for long, without undergoing spoilage like fermentation, and mould development. The green fodder harvested at pre-flowering to flowering stage is dried to reduce the moisture level to about 20 %. Good-quality hay can be produced from fodder crops that have more proportion of leaves and thin stems. Legumes like Lucerne, Berseem, Cowpea, etc., are well suited for hay making. Goats relish the hay prepared from leguminous crops. Good hay should be leafy and greenish in colour. Proper drying will ensure that hay is free from fungus or moulds.

Silage

It is a preservation of green fodder in its original form through anaerobic fermentation. Fodders which have thick stem, and more sugar content like maize and sorghum are well suited for silage making. The fresh fodder harvested during grain filling stage with desired moisture content of 65-70% is best for ensiling. Adequate trampling is required to remove oxygen for ensuring anaerobic fermentation. The upper portion should be covered with about four inches thick straw layer followed by two inches thick soil and a polythene sheet. Care must be taken to prevent the entry of water and air. The silage will be ready in about five week's time. Good silage will have greenish-yellow colour with a vinegar odour and a pH of 4.2 or less. Pit silos are suitable for the farmers having resources and higher number of milch animals. The technique of silage making in poly bags and plastic bins was tested under participatory technology development in the adopted villages under the NAIP livelihood project in Chitradurga district. The small holders were receptive to this low-cost technology and readily adopted this method as their need for silage was in limited quantities to tide over the green fodder deficit during the lean months.

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Value Addition to Fodder for Sustainable Ruminant Production

U. Krishnamoorthy Department of Livestock Production and Management

Veterinary College, KVAFSU, Bangalore 560 024

Value addition to a commodity refers to increasing its value concerning cost by means of processing to increase its acceptance by the consumers. Processing can be anything from changing appearance, storage quality, density, durability, composition, etc. Thus, it is logical to expect that the value added or processed products are more expensive than the raw or unprocessed products. However, the advantage of using value-added products is that their use efficiency is higher for the purpose for which they are intended. For example, a compounded livestock feed offered in the form of mash versus pellets, mash is cheaper but wastage can be higher; shelf life is lower as against the pellets that are more expensive, fewer wastage with a better shelf life. Thus, the additional cost of pelleting mash is recovered from reducing wastage of feed and the additional advantages such as increased shelf life and convenience of handling makes pellets more preferred than mash. However, when the feed cost increases, the cost of product derived from livestock also increases. Thus, value addition to a product can be infinite but for economic viability, there is a limit beyond which it is unsustainable. This is all the more important in the ruminant sector, because sustainable ruminant production is one of the key components in supporting rural livelihood, income generation and food security, wherein feed and fodder constitute the major input. Therefore, value addition to feed and fodder is a necessity but in a judicious manner to keep it economically viable.

In India, although crop residues constitute the bulk of feed input in ruminant production, efficiency of utilization is far from satisfactory. A significant amount of crop residues are burnt because of the constraints associated with handling, transportation, and nutritional value. If these constraints are overcome their wastage can be minimized. Although this can add cost to the crop residues, increased use of crop residues will help in reducing dependence on compound feeds that are more expensive.

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Compaction

(i) Dried crop residues

Conventionally crop residues are dried and preserved and those in excess are burnt. Burning of straw is common with rice straw, maize straw, sugarcane tops and thrash but not with sorghum because sorghum straw is relatively easy to pack. Therefore, intervention to facilitate compaction of bulky crop residues such as rice straw, maize straw and sugarcane tops can add value to these products. However, the technology should be cost effective. Baling machines used for baling hay in European countries are too expensive and do not seem to be appropriate to our farming system. The traditional system of making small bundles need to be improved in a way to make it labour friendly, rather than making it labour independent with fully automated machines. The interventions can be simple such as using plastic ties, and hand operated packing devices. The cost of transportation of bundled straw can be reduced by 50 per cent, and the wastage during storage can also be minimized although there are no published data on the magnitude of reduction in wastage and transportation costs.

(ii) Wet crop residues

Compaction is necessary to facilitate ease of handling, transportation and storage. This principle of compaction to prolong storage of green fodder has been applied in preparation of silage. Wet crop residues after grain harvest can also be converted into silage by the addition of a source of soluble sugars such as jaggery or molasses at the rate of 2 per cent by weight of wet crop residues. In an experiment comparing the effect of feeding dried stover and ensiled stover of both maize and sorghum, it revealed that feeding of ensiled stover resulted in a significant increase in milk yield, milk fat and SNF content in milk. In the US maize stover silage was used in the 1930's when the production levels of cows were in the range of 10 to 15 kg per day. In China, maize stover is widely used for making silage whereas in India nearly 40 per cent of maize stover is burnt.

Hay making

Cultivable green grasses and legumes under the intensive system can be converted into hay. In general, hay making is not a popular practice in India. Although all grass and legume forages can be converted into hay under Indian conditions because of abundant sun light, thin stemmed tall grasses and legumes with high-yield potential are better suited because of ease with which they can be harvested, dried, compacted, transported and stacked. Making small bundles of 10 to 20 kg hay with 80 per cent grass and 20 per cent legume can be a simple, economic, nearly balanced fodder for low producing cows and buffaloes as compared to complete feed block prepared in feed plants, which involves a huge investment for infrastructure and transportation logistics and handling.

Dry matter production

The dry matter and nutrient content of cultivated fodder has a significant impact on production. In this regard, a combination of grass and legume should be considered in the fodder production program. In general, biomass yield from grasses per unit of land is almost twice as high as that from legumes. Therefore, cultivation of grass and legume forage on equal area will suit a good feeding program. Time of harvest of grasses, and legumes is also equally important. As the plants mature, the digestibility declines, however, the dry matter yield increases. Dry matter is important to fulfil the bulk requirement of ruminants. In regions where fodder scarcity

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is a routine phenomenon, strategy should be to produce adequate fodder dry matter. Dry matter content in cultivated fodders in pre-flowering stages is as low as 10 per cent, and it gradually increases as plants mature. Therefore, our recommendation is to harvest fodder crops not before at least 50 per cent of the plants have flowered. At this stage, dry matter content will be in the range of 25 to 30 per cent and are relatively easy to convert into hay.

Chaffing

Chaffing is intended to reduce particle size and to minimize the scope for selection by the animals. Chaffing increases the bulk of fodder, and this is undesirable from the point of transportation and storage. Therefore, it is desirable to chaff hay or crop residues or green fodder just prior to feeding or else adopt a compaction for storage such as silage or fodder block.

Summary

In this article, value addition to fodder for sustainable ruminant production in the context of prevailing farming practices in India is discussed. Although the options are not new, focusing on harvesting the crop at optimum stage, sun drying and densification by appropriate packing, ensiling of wet crop residues by appropriate additives and cultivation of grass-legume combination can contribute effectively to value addition to fodder for sustainable ruminant production.

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Rumen Bypass Nutrient Technology and its Relevance for Sustainable Milk Production

in High Yielding Dairy AnimalsM. Chandrasekharaiah, N.M. Soren, S.B.N. Rao and C. S. Prasad


Bypass nutrients are the nutrient fractions, which gets fermented at a lower degree in the rumen, which becomes available at the lower part of the gastrointestinal tract for the subsequent digestion and absorption. In addition to this, the bypass nutrients provide a steady supply of nutrients instead of providing all the nutrients immediately with sudden bursts from easily soluble nutrients. Initially, the concept of bypass nutrients was used for proteins, to describe the protein quality in ruminants, but subsequently, this term has been extended to other nutrients like carbohydrates and fats that could also escape rumen fermentation partially and digested and absorbed in the small intestine. These concepts are useful not only for better utilization of nutrients but also minimize the ruminal fermentation losses thereby reducing the wastage of nutrients into the environment.

Bypass proteins

The microbial protein synthesis is an energy-dependent process. Deficiency of dietary energy, especially during early part of the lactation, which is not uncommon, results in correspondingly lower synthesis of bacterial protein in the rumen leading to reduced availability of protein for milk production. Therefore, for sustaining higher level of milk yield and faster growth rate, ruminants need more dietary protein than the flora in the rumen can utilize. However, higher dietary protein intake, especially rumen degradable protein (RDP) often results in increasing loss of ammonia from the rumen. Excess ammonia is converted into urea in the liver, the major part of which is excreted through urine resulting in the loss of part of dietary protein. Adequate protein supply to high-yielding cows without stress from excess ammonia can be ensured by decreasing the degradability of dietary proteins. This has led to the development of techniques to protect greater proportion of dietary proteins from the degradation in the rumen.

Over the last two decades, more and more quantitative knowledge on the protein requirements of ruminants has been acquired and on this basis new systems for protein evaluation of feeds, and for expression of the protein requirements of ruminants have been proposed (ARC 1980/NRC 1989). These systems require that the protein need of the ruminants must be supplied in terms of:

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a) Rumen degradable protein (RDP)

b) Undegradable dietary protein (UDP) or bypass protein

An important pre-requisite for the implementation of the new protein evaluation system mentioned above is the expression of the protein requirements of ruminants on RDP and UDP basis and also the description of the protein content of ruminant feeds on RDP and UDP basis. The RDP and UDP content of some of the commonly used feed stuffs (Sampath et al., 1999, Chandrasekharaiah et al 2001, 2002) based on results of the studies conducted in different parts of the world are given Table 1.

Therefore, it is desirable to include feed materials of medium or high bypass protein content in the ration of animals yielding large quantities of milk, especially in the early stages of lactation, under such feeding regimes, as the microbial protein synthesized may not be sufficient to meet the protein requirement in these animals.

A key to efficient feed utilization is to formulate rations that optimize microbial protein synthesis and also supply amounts of rumen undegradable or bypass protein needed for growth, production and reproduction in ruminants.

Table 1. Crude protein (CP), rumen degradable protein (RDP) and undegradable protein (UDP) / bypass protein content of feeds and fodders

Feedstuffs CP RDP UDP (bypass protein)

-- gram per kg dry matter--

Concentrates Bajra 120 38 82 Barley 100 79 21 Brewers grains 260 122 138 Coconut cake (solvent extracted) 270 62 208 Coconut cake (expeller) 240 173 67 Corn gluten meal (60% CP) 600 126 474 Corn gluten meal (40% CP) 400 148 252 Cotton seed 170 78 92 Cotton seed cake 350 179 171 Cotton seed cake (solvent extracted) 360 137 223 Distillers dried grain 290 133 157 Gingelly / sesame / til cake 350 266 84 Groundnut cake (expellar) 450 315 135 Groundnut cake (Formaldehyde treated 1g/100g CP) 450 194 256 Groundnut cake (Heat treated 130 C 3 Hrs) 450 194 256 Groundnut cake (Heat treated 130 C 2 Hrs) 450 234 216 Groundnut cake (Deoiled / solvent extracted) 480 408 72 Horse gram 240 137 103 Jowar 100 20 80 Karanja cake 320 173 147 Kokam cake 140 17 123 Linseed cake 280 162 118 Mahua seed cake 185 105 80 Maize bran 160 59 101

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Therefore, it is desirable to include feed materials of medium or high bypass protein content in the ration of animals yielding large quantities of milk, especially in the early stages of lactation, under such feeding regimes, as the microbial protein synthesized may not be sufficient to meet the protein requirement in these animals.

A key to efficient feed utilization is to formulate rations that optimize microbial protein synthesis and also supply amounts of rumen undegradable or bypass protein needed for growth, production and reproduction in ruminants.

Bypass fats

During the early part of lactation in cows, the feed intake is reduced due to stress of calving and milk production. The energy available from the diet during this period may not be sufficient to meet the energy needs for body maintenance and milk production. Hence, body-fat reserves will be mobilized during this period, which ultimately lead to metabolic disorders like ketosis and reduced immune status and other reproductive related problems (Bell, 1995; Drackley, 1999). The cereal grains/concentrates or fats can be added to the rations to meet the energy requirement during the periods. However, the addition of concentrates at higher level decreases fibre intake and leads to acidosis (Palmquist and Jenkins, 1980).

Subabul (Leucaena leucocephola) 250 80 170 Sugar cane tops, chaffed, ensiled 68 10 58 Wheat straw 33 18 15

Maize grain 90 27 67 Mustard cake 350 263 87 Neem seed kernel cake 386 217 169 Niger cake 330 244 86 Oats 100 84 16 Rice bran 140 91 49 Rice bran extraction 160 64 96 Rice broken 110 35 75 Rice polish 120 61 59 Rubber seed cake 280 202 78 Safflower cake 220 141 79 Salseed meal 90 27 63 Silk cotton seed cake 370 289 81 Soyabean meal extractions 460 276 184 Sunflower meal 300 165 135

Roughages Alfalfa, dehydrated 200 80 120 Alfalfa fresh (Medicago sativa) 200 152 48 Berseem (Trifolium alexndrium) 259 127 132 Grass hay 29 13 16 Guninea grass 82 33 49 Maize early cut 165 96 69 Oats (Avena sativa) 126 65 61 Para grass 71 34 37 Rice straw 40 15 25

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It may be beneficial to add fat to a diet to increase its energy density. However, addition of fats has certain disadvantages that include, inhibitory effects on ruminal fermentation leading to decrease in fiber digestibility, lower intestinal absorption at higher intake, low contribution to total oxidation of nutrients and sensitivity to nutrient imbalance causing reduced energy intake (Palmquist, 1994). So in order to use fats supplements for ruminants, they must be either protected from rumen fermentation or converted to soaps. Under these circumstances, bypass fats assume special significance in feeding of dairy animals.

The fats can be protected by physical or chemical agents to bypass the rumen and to get digested in the lower tract (Kundu et al., 2008). Feeding of protected lipids to dairy animals increased the energy density of the diet without compromising fibre digestion in the rumen (Scott et al., 1995). Apart from increasing the energy intake of the animals, there is an added advantage of feeding protected unsaturated fat to cows, as the milk produced by such cows shall have higher unsaturated fatty acids in milk fat, which makes a softer butter, and is also safer for humans, especially the heart patients. Bypass fat can be supplemented to get designer milk with higher content of long chain unsaturated fatty acids for human beings (Gulati et al., 2001).

Oil seeds provide natural partial protection from lipolysis and biohydrogenation in the rumen due to their hard outer seed coat (Ekeren et al., 1992). Cottonseed and full-fat soya are good sources of both rumen protected protein and fat (Naik, 2012). Feeding of these sources increases the supply of protein and energy to the animal for higher productivity.

The advantages of feeding bypass fat supplements include increased milk yield as well as milk fat in dairy animals. Apart from this, bypass fat supplemental feeding results in improved reproductive efficiency in dairy animals.

Conclusions

Rumen bypass nutrient technology is very useful as feeding of bypass protein and bypass fat has the potential to improve productive as well as reproductive performance of dairy animals under Indian conditions.

References

ARC 1980.The nutrient requirements of ruminal livestock, commonwealth agricultural Bureal Farnham, Royal, slough, England.

Bell A.W. 1995. Regulation of organic nutrient metabolism during transition from late pregnancy to early lactation. Journal of Animal Science 73: 2804 2819.

Chandrasekharaiah, M., Sampath, K.T. and Thulasi, A. 2002. Rumen protein degradability of certain feedstuffs in cattle determined by nylon bag technique. Indian Journal of Dairy and Biosciences 13: 18 21.

Chandrasekharaiah, M., Sampath, K.T., Thulasi, A. and Anandan, S. (2001). In situ protein degradability of certain feedstuffs in the rumen of cattle. Indian Journal of Animal Sciences. 71: 261 264.

Drackley J.K. (1999). ADSA Foundation Scholar Award. Biology of dairy cows during the transition period: the final frontier? Journal of Dairy Science. 82: 2259 2273.

Ekeren, P.A., Smith, D.R., Lunt, D.K. Smith, S.B. (1992). Ruminal biohydrogenation of fatty acids from high-oleate sunflower seeds. Journal of Animal Science. 70: 2574 2580.

Gulati, S.K., Ryde, I., Kaur, R., Scott, T.W., Garg, M.L., Sherasia, P.L. and Singh, D.K. 2001. Role of protected nutrients sustainable milk production. In: Proc. of Xth Animal Nutrition Conference. Emerging nutritional technological for sustainable animal

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production and environmental protection, Karnal, during 9 to 11th November 2011, pp 1-9

Kundu, S.S., Sirohi, S.K. and Singh, S. 2008. Significance of bypass fat feeding to dairy animals. Indian Dairy Science 80: 55 59.

Naik, P.K. 2012. Feeding rumen protected fat to high yielding dairy cows. In: Animal nutrition advances and developments. (U.R. Mehra, Putan Singh, A.K.Verma, Eds.) SSPH publishers, Delhi, India. pp 529 548.

NRC, 1989. Nutrient requirements of dairy cattle. 6th revised edition, National Academy of Science. Washington DC.

Palmquist, D.L., Jenkins T.C. 1980. Fat in lactation rations: Review. Journal of Dairy Science 63:1 14.

Palmquist D.L. (1994). The role of dietary fats in efficiency of ruminants. Journal of Nutrition 124:1377S-1382S.

Sampath, K.T., Chandrasekharaiah, M., Thulasi, A., Anandan, S. 1999. Bypass protein for ruminants. Technical bulletin II National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Bangalore,pp 1-19.

Scott, T.A., Shaver, R.D., Zepeda, L., Yandell, B. Smith, T.R. 1995. Effects of rumen-inert fat on lactation, reproduction, and health of high producing Holstein herds. Journal of Dairy Science 78: 2435 2451.

Walli, T.K., Garg, M.R., Sampath, K.T., Srivastava, A., Singh, G.P., Gill, M., Ibrahim, M.N.M. 1995. Feeding of bypass nutrients to ruminants. Handbook for straw feeding systems (Kiran Singh and J B Schire, eds.), ICAR, New Delhi, pp 163 173.

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Minerals in Feeding of Dairy Animals and Concept of Area Specific Mineral Mixture

N.K.S. Gowda, D.T. Pal and C. S. Prasad National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology

Micronutrients are classified based on their needs and their distribution in various tissues in the animal body. Generally, they include minerals and vitamins. Minerals that are needed in relatively larger amounts are referred to as major or macro minerals and those that are needed in very small amounts are referred to as trace or micro minerals. The minerals are widely distributed in the body, with Calcium (Ca) and Phosphorus (P) being present in large amounts followed by magnesium (Mg), Sodium (Na), Potassium (K), Chlorine (Cl) and sulphur (S). Calcium constitutes about 46% and phosphorus about 29% of the total-body mineral, while others comprise of about 0.3%. Bones, muscles and other soft tissues are the primary storage sites for these minerals.

Functions

Calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and fluorine are the constituents of bones and teeth and provide strength to the skeletal system. Minerals like Ca, P, Mg, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Mo and Se play an essential role in enzyme functioning, while Na, K and Cl help in maintaining osmotic pressure and acid-base balance in the body. Trace minerals play an important role in activating several enzyme systems responsible for various biochemical functions. Elements like Fe, Cu, Co, Mo and I are integral part of enzymes/vitamins/hormones. Minerals like selenium have synergistic action with vitamin E for acting as an antioxidant. There is an increased documental evidence of impaired productivity in livestock due to trace mineral deficiency (NRC, 2001). Elements like Cu, cobalt and iron are essential in haemoglobin and vitamin B synthesis. Sulphur is a constituent of certain 12essential amino acids and is necessary for formation of wool, hoof and skin. Iodine is required for nutrient metabolism as it is a component of thyroid hormone. There is a potential relationship between dietary trace mineral levels and immune function (Corah, 1996). Prior to the appearance of clinical symptoms, the marginal deficiency would affect growth and fertility. Clinical symptoms appear only under acute deficiency.

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Requirements

Mineral requirements are highly dependent on the level of productivity, and the type of feed ingredients used in formulating the ration. Type of roughage used as a basal diet also will influence the mineral requirement. Presence of certain anti-nutritional factors like oxalates, tannins, silicates and phytates affect the utilization of certain mineral elements like Ca, P, Zn and Mn. Under such circumstances extra supplementation are required as marginal deficiencies under low levels of production become more important with increased levels of production. Most of the suggested mineral requirements are often based on growth performance and quantities of a specific mineral sufficient to prevent clinical signs of a deficiency. Selenium, Cu, Zn, Co deficiencies have been shown to alter various components of the immune system. Zinc requirements for spermatogenesis and testicular development in male sheep are higher than for growth and Mn requirements are similarly lower for growth than for fertility in sheep.

Important differences in mineral utilization can be attributed to breed of animals. Marked ruminant animal variation within breeds in the efficiency of mineral absorption from the diet has been reported to be 5-35% for Mg, 40-80% for P, and 2-10% for Cu. Adequate intake of forages by grazing ruminants is essential to meet mineral requirements. Factors which greatly reduce forage intake, such as low protein content and increased lignification reduce total mineral consumption. When energy and protein supplies are adequate, livestock performance improves resulting in high mineral requirements. The micronutrient requirements can be influenced by metabolic or nutritional factors that result in other elements complexing specific micro elements rendering them nutritionally unavailable to the animal. Complexing between molybdenum and sulphur reduces the availability of copper to the animal. The detection of micronutrient deficiency or excesses involves clinical, pathological and analytical criteria in addition to the productive response from specific mineral supplementation. Clinical signs of mineral deficiency along with feed ingredient and animal tissue analysis would give a fair degree of information on the mineral deficiency or excesses. Even when the diet is deficient in certain micronutrients, the blood level of such a micronutrient remains fairly constant due to homeostasis.

Deficiency and Toxicity

Mineral deficiencies are more common in tropical countries where poor-quality straws / stovers form the bulk of the dry matter intake. Loss of hair, skin disorders, non - infectious abortion, low fertility, loss of appetite, bone abnormalities, tetany, diarrhoea and run-down conditions are some of the commonest clinical signs suggestive of mineral deficiencies. Mineral deficiency signs are often confusing as the observed symptoms can involve more than one mineral and can be associated with protein and / or energy inadequacy. Some minerals like Ca, P and Mg are stored in body tissues, and their deficiency symptoms are exhibited only after a period of time. Calcium and phosphorus deficiency can be observed more quickly, particularly in high producing animals and fast growing calves. Specific deficiency of individual minerals is discussed separately. Toxicity due to excess ingestion of some of the minerals is often region-specific and is closely related to the geo-chemical characteristics of soil, water and plant species. Such toxicities are mostly endemic in nature as in fluorosis and molybdenosis. Farm animals are not particularly sensitive to excess of most of the minerals, and the mineral level needs to be high before any toxicity symptoms are seen. However, certain species could be more sensitive. For example, copper toxicity may affect the sheep more than other species. Elements like fluorine, selenium, lead and cadmium may cause toxicity leading to impaired metabolism and loss in production.

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Reproduction

The precise mechanism of mineral-reproduction interactions is not fully understood because of the complexity of neuro-hormonal dialogue. Some minerals act directly on the gonads, while others act through hypophyseal - pituitary - gonadal axis. Elements like Se once considered toxic, is known to improve both male and female fertility when supplemented in the organic form as selenomethionine. During reproductive event reactive metabolites of oxygen are produced and are removed through the antioxidant process by Se and vitamin E and provide a convenient environment for reproduction. Similarly other trace elements like Cu, Zn, Mn, Cr and I also act as cofactors or activate enzymes and help in hormone synthesis and hence influence biochemical functions associated with reproduction. Because of their role in the endocrine system and in tissue integrity, minerals have a beneficial role to play in resumption of follicular growth and fertility in dairy cows and buffaloes. The potential for minerals to play a significant role in herd fertility is indisputable. The minerals that affect reproduction in ruminants are generally found within the trace element group, although deficiencies of calcium and phosphorous can also affect the fertility. Reproductive problems are frequently reported in association with trace mineral deficiencies, particularly copper, zinc, selenium and manganese.

Deficiency of Ca may delay uterine involution and increase incidence of dystocia, retained placenta and prolapse of the uterus. Excess Ca may impair reproductive function by causing secondary deficiency of P, K Mg, Zn, Cu and other trace minerals by inhibiting their absorption in the intestine. Calcium-dependent mechanisms are involved in the steroid biosynthesis in the testes, adrenal glands and ovaries. Calcium plays a role in the utilization of cholesterol by mitochondria or by stimulating the conversion of pregnenolone to progesterone. Phosphorus is often associated with reproductive abnormalities in cattle, although infertility due to P deficiency is usually manifested after other signs are readily apparent. Phosphorus deficiency induces lowered conception rate, irregular estrus, anestrus, decreased ovarian activity, increased incidence of cystic follicles and generally depressed fertility. The involvement of P in Phospholipid and c-AMP synthesis may be a key to its effect on reproduction. Zinc deficiency in ruminants has been postulated to weaken the skin and other stratified epithelia as well as reducing the basal metabolic rate following infectious challenge. Zinc is a co-factor for many proteins and enzymes involved in acute phase response to infection and inflammation. Because the mammary gland is a skin gland, it is likely that zinc will have a positive role in its protection. Skin integrity of the teat has been shown to be specially linked with mastitis prevention. Zinc activates several enzyme systems and is a component of many metalloenzymes. It plays a vital role in hormone secretion, especially related to growth, reproduction, immunocompetence and stress. Zinc is also involved in the generation of keratin and in skin nucleic acid and collagen synthesis as well as in the maintenance of normal vitamin A concentration in plasma and in ovarian function. Many animals, therefore, require supplemental zinc in the diet for normal body function because of either low levels in the dietary ingredients or the presence of antagonistic factors, which decrease the bioavailability of the element. Antagonism might be due to metal ion interactions such as iron or copper.

The need for iodine for the thyroid activity and for the prevention of goiter has been well recognized. Reproductive failure often is a secondary manifestation of thyroid dysfunction resulting from iodine deficiency in cattle. Fetal development during iodine deficiency may be arrested at any stage and lead to early embryonic death, fetal resorption, stillbirth or birth of goitrous, weak or dead fetus. Hypothyroidism also can reduce gonadotrophin output by the pituitary. Iodine deficiency in bulls is associated with depressed libido and deterioration of semen quality. Several studies have revealed that supplementation of iodine has improved fertility, reduced stillbirths, abortions and incidence of retained placenta. Infertility in dairy cattle resulting from irregular or suppressed estrus is often responsive to iodine therapy. Iodine supplementation is necessary in many areas of deficiency. Manganese is involved in the activities of several enzyme systems, including

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hydrolases, kinases, decarboxylases and transferases as well as Fe-containing enzymes, which require Mn in their activity. It is therefore involved in carbohydrate, lipid and protein metabolism. It is also needed for bone growth and maintenance of connective and skeletal tissue. Mn also plays a role in reproduction and in immunological function. Mn deficiency results in abnormal skeletal growth, increased fat deposition, reproductive problems and reduced milk production. Selenium (Se) is a semi-metal that is very similar to sulphur in its chemical properties. It is an essential component of glutathione enzyme system, and deficiency of selenium will make the cell vulnerable to oxidation and increase the requirement of vitamin E. It has therefore been usual to supplement in the diets of all classes of animals, because of its antioxidant properties. Cob

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