Schiere, J.B.

Singh, K.

Name not available

Feeding of ruminants on fibrous crop residues - introductory comments.

NARCIS 

Wageningen Yield 

FEEDING OF RUMINANTS ON FIBROUS CROP RESIDUES 
INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS 
Kiran Singh1 and J.B. Schiere2 
Increasing human populations require increased food production 
(WCED, 1987; Alexandratos, 1988). Crop land is used more 
intensively, stubble grazing and room for pasture land diminishes 
while waste land is eroding, i.e. possibilities of free grazing 
diminish (Jodha 1986). Crop residues will play an increasingly 
important role in the feeding of livestock (Singh and Rangnekar, 
1986; Devendra, 1993). Increased and sustained crop production 
requires new approaches (Conway and Barbier, 1990) and whereas 
in the past livestock supported crop production by draught and 
dung production, the roles are slowly reversing and livestock 
depends increasingly on cropping. In short: systems of farming 
are changing fast. Feeding of livestock cannot be seen in 
isolation from the entire farm enterprise. Planting of fodder or 
feeding of straws affects the economics of crop production. A 
better understanding of the farm as a system is required, 
including issues of crop production and soil fertility. New or 
old methods of feeding that are useful in one farming system 
might not apply in other systems, hence the importance of 
"farming systems" work done in the project. 
Farming systems work is the topic of the first session. The term 
"farming systems" covers many approaches and often leads to 
misunderstanding and confusion. The farming system work in the 
BIOCON project includes mainly farm level aspects of: 
identification of target groups/ recommendation domains/ agro 
economic zones that might benefit from available/ transferable 
technologies; 
traditional criteria to judge effectiveness of transferable 
technologies such as individual productivity of the cow, 
fodder yield, are complemented with more recent criteria (the 
effect of an intervention on total farm income, social 
position of the farmer and gender issues); 
design of new farming systems as required for extension and 
development; 
on-farm testing of lab results; 
participatory research and survey techniques (RRA, sondeo). 
Farming systems work provides the basis of all further work on 
crop residues. 
Predicting the effect of, or understanding the need for new 
technologies in animal nutrition requires a systematic approach 
but also knowledge of its fundamental principles. Systems work 
forces the nutritionists in the lab to produce up to date 
information on parameters such as feed intake, digestibility, 
substitution rates, associative effects and nutrient 
Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Krishi Bhauan, New Delhi-110001, India 
Dept. of Tropical Animal Production, P.O. Box 338, Agricultural University Wageningen, The 
Netherlands. 
Introductory comments 
requirements. The use of nutrient requirements do not necessarily 
imply their application for maximum production per animal 
(Jackson 1981). It is increasingly agreed that the requirements 
for the whole range of animal production needs to be quantified. 
The second session gives a summary of historic and current 
developments in terms of nutrient requirements and evaluation. 
The low nutritive quality of crop residues can be overcome in a 
number of ways, such as by treatments, supplementation or their 
combination. 
Biological treatment with fungi is discussed in the third 
session. One new approach conceived in the project is the so 
called "Karnal process". However, biological treatment is not 
ready for field application and its understanding requires 
cooperation with microbiologists, plant physiologists and 
biochemists to solve or study inherent problems of this 
treatment, such as organic matter losses, disappointing increases 
of digestibility, difficult process control and potential 
toxicity problems. 
Chemical and physical treatment is by and large beyond the on-
station experimental stage except for work on some straws such 
as of sorghum, maize and fingermillet. The emphasis in the 
laboratories should be on determination of parameters of 
nutritive value, intake and substitution rates, in order to 
predict the economics of feeding treated or untreated straw in 
different farming systems. As discussed in the fourth session, 
much information is now available on economics and field 
application of these treatments, especially the urea/ ammonia 
treatment of rice and wheat straw. 
Variability of straw quality and quantity caused by varietal or 
management aspects is discussed in the fifth session. Issues 
arising include the repeatability and magnitude of the variation, 
the choice between grain or straw production, or particularly 
between quantity or quality of straw. The BIOCON project was 
fortunate in this respect to have the collaboration of the 
AICRP's agronomists/breeders on sorghum and fingermillet. The 
exchange between crop and animal scientists has proven useful. 
The subject of extension, with an increasing recognition of the 
importance of gender issues is covered in the final session. 
Quite often the scientist tends to come up with solutions 
(transferable technologies) for which the farmer (husband, wife 
or children) have no use, i.e. much time is wasted on ill 
conceived extension programs. Relatively easy progress such as 
was made during the green revolution, is difficult in highly 
variable systems with limited solutions. A proper understanding 
of the needs and problems of the diverse farming community is a 
pre-requisite for extension. In that sense it is important to 
note that modern concepts stress the two way traffic of 
extension, not only from the lab to the land, but also from the 
<iran Singh and J.B. Schiere 
land to the lab. Researchers require input and feedback from the 
field, since many research topics are irrelevant for the field 
situation. They may be biologically sound but their economic or 
practical application is often very limited. 
CONCLUSIONS 
The improved use of crop residues for animal feed involves 
cooperation from many disciplines in research and extension. 
Quite some work is already done and needs to be applied where 
possible. Extension services at state level or from NGO's require 
the information of the research institutions of which in India 
the ICAR is the apex. 
The task for the ICAR is to increase the interaction between 
field and research to face and predict both short term and long 
term issues. The next phase of BIOCON is aimed at strengthening 
this approach and the purpose of this workshop is to inform and 
to open doors to others, besides being a get together of the 
project workers themselves. The large area of work covered under 
the project thus far could not have been possible without the 
many scientists and other staff in participating centers of the 
project. 
REFERENCES 
* 
Alexandratos, N., 1988. World Agriculture: Toward 2000. An FAO study. Belhaven Press, 25 Floral Street, 
London WC2E 9DS, UK. ISBN 1 85293 057 8, 338 pp. 
Conway, G.R., Barbier, E.B., 1990. After the Green Revolution, sustainable agriculture for development. 
Earthscan publications, London, UK. 
Devendra, C , 1993. Fibrous crop residues: strategies for the efficient use and development of feeding 
systems. These proceedings. 
Jackson, M.G., 1981 . Uho needs feeding standards? Anim. Feed Sei. Technol. 6 : 101-104 
Jodha, N.S., 1986. Common property resources and rural poor in dry regions of India. Economic and political 
weekly XXI (27) : 1169-1181. 
Singh, K., Rangnekar, D.V., 1986. Fibrous crop residues as animal feeds in India, pp. 111-116. In: M.N.H. 
Ibrahim and J.B. Schiere (eds.): Rice straw and related feeds in ruminant rations. Proceedings of an 
international workshop held on 24-28 March 1986 in Kandy, Sri Lanka. SUP Publication No. 2, ISBN 90-
9001270-2. 
WCED, 1987. Our Common Future. World Commission on Environment and Development. Oxford University press, 
Oxford/New York. ISBN 0-19-282080-X 


Feeding of ruminants on fibrous crop residues - introductory comments.

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