Effect of sugarcane silage on productive parameters of replacement Holstein-Friesian heifers

ABSTRACTObjective. Measure the productive parameters of Holstein-Friesian females from weaning to 470 days old, comparing feeding through sugarcane silage (SCS) and corn silage (CS) in a concentrated fodder ratio of 70:30. Materials and methods. Twenty-eight post-weaning calves were used, with an average age of 80±16 days old and an initial weight of 79.5±12.9 kg. The T-Student test was used for the comparison of means, where calves were divided into two groups of 14, one for each treatment. The body weight BW (kg), wither height WH (cm), body condition BC (1 to 5 scale), daily weight gain DWG (kg) and feed conversion FC (kg) was measured every 30 days. Results. Differences were found between treatments, where heifers fed with SCS showed better BC (3.12), FC (7.4) as compared to the CS treatment. No significant differences were found in terms of DWG (0.666 and 0.743 kg/d). Conclusions. Feeding based on sugarcane silage allows for an improved body condition and feed conversion of animals having with this an acceptable and cost-effective production performance in the raising of dairy replacements

Current Standing and Future Challenges of Dairying in Pakistan: A Status Update

Pakistan is considered among the leading raw milk producing countries. Unlike the production systems in the developed countries, milk production systems in Pakistan represent smallholding with subsistence- or market-oriented-level farming followed by peri-urban or commercial-level farming. Historically, dairy sector has been owned and managed by the private sector. During the past two decades, new initiatives have been taken because of the active involvement of corporate private sector. These efforts have resulted in improvements like enlargement of herds and import of high-quality milk germ plasm, the productivity per animal, milk collection, processing and marketing, the supply of dairy inputs (machinery, equipment, feeds, semen, and elite dairy animals), and farmers knowledge, and skills on modern management practices. Conclusively, the dairy sector is performing at some sustainable level to meet the food requirements of the growing population and helping save a handful of foreign exchange. Yet, challenges like local replacements of high genetic potential dairy animals, health hazards of β-casein proteins, antibiotics and aflatoxins, and uneconomical operational costs facing the dairy industry in the near future need to be addressed. The main objective of this chapter is to identify the current trends in dairy industry of Pakistan and describe those factors, which can influence the sustainability and profitability of dairying in the near future

Report on developing bottom-up Marginal Abatement Cost Curves (MACCS) for representative farm types.

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Recent advances in dairy development : feeding and nutrition

Meeting: Study Meeting on Dairy Farming, 26 July-6 Aug. 1988, Tokyo, J

New Advances in Postharvest Technology: An Overview for Feed Production from Postharvest Wastes and By-Products

Globally agricultural production system generates a substantial proportion of postharvest waste that causes environmental pollution resulting in economic losses and human health-related problems. It is therefore important to make an assessment of this loss and turn it back to the consumption cycle. Processing and conversion of by-products, residues, and agricultural wastes and their reuse in the production cycle is a suitable solution for the economic use of these types of postharvest waste, especially in feeding livestock animals or in related industries. This chapter provides an overview of the assessment of the postharvest wastes that are generated in the field or on the farm at the time of harvest or processing industry. After introducing the potential use of technologies to upgrade postharvest waste for animal feed purposes and briefly discussing livestock performance, this review presents the latest and most interesting research on the use of postharvest wastes as feed

Addressing variation in smallholder farming systems to improve dairy development in Kenya

Mixed crop-livestock (MCL) systems with small herds of improved dairy cattle breeds produce the bulk of Kenya’s milk. The adoption of interventions to achieve increased cow productivity and increased market orientation has been relatively low, which could be due to the fact that variation between MCL farming systems is not taken into account in development projects. Variation among farming systems is determined by their market quality for inputs and outputs, by their availability of production factors, and by their biophysical context. These aspects are associated with spatial variation, i.e. they differ among locations. Consequently, farming systems in different locations will be different, will have different constraints and different targeted interventions to overcome these constraints. Better understanding of the variation in these systems and the context they operate in can inform development interventions towards their market-orientation and productivity. The aim of this thesis was to understand the variation in farming system development, constraints for development and targeted interventions for development, in order to increase market-orientation and dairy cattle productivity of smallholder MCL system in Kenya. I concluded from my studies that in Urban Locations (UL), farm development was constrained by scarcity of fodder, replacement stock and hired labour, and the limited availability of production factors, while in Rural Locations (RL) farm development was constrained by low quality of concentrates and low prices of milk. In UL, most perceived positive deviant farmers (PDs), i.e. farmers that overcame constraints and/or were perceived successful for dairy production, were economic PDs. Results suggest that in UL, PDs overcame constraints by increasing herd size and intensity of production, whereas non-PDs lacked the skills and financial stability to increase herd size and milk production per cow. In RL, PDs overcame constraints by increasing herd size, whereas non-PDs lacked the skills and financial stability to increase herd size. A method was developed to estimate milk production per lactation (MPL) from recall data, which was used to assess the biophysical factors constraining milk production. Results suggest that the level of accuracy of estimating MPL based on recall data were acceptable. In all locations, feed was the most important biophysical constraint for increasing milk production and protein deficiency was a pervasive constraining factor during lactation. Therefore, supplementing lucerne, with or without concentrates, increased feedlimited milk production, suggesting that sourcing affordable protein supplements of good quality is a priority for increasing productivity. These results imply that development interventions should address the different constraints in the farming systems. UL farmers and PDs are following the stepping-up livelihood strategy and relevant interventions should be tailored for commercial production including to develop and/or strengthen market-oriented fodder production and value chains, infrastructure, and training and extension. RL non-PDs are hanging-in and interventions should address both production function and subsistence function of cattle and should include improving farmers’ financial stability, access to grazing areas, and skills as well as improving breeds. Future dairy development in Kenya will follow diverse pathways with mid-rural location (the location between UL and RL, about 15 to 50 km from the centre of UL) as the most promising optimal location for dairy development because of land availability and potential to develop formal dairy value chains and infrastructure and recycle nutrients