International Center for Tropical Agriculture

English

CGSpace (CGIAR)

 Forage production and on farm feeding of the produced forages  Abstract Proper feeding is identified as one of the most limiting factors in dairy production, several reports describe the feeding situation on many farms in Kenya as insufficient in quantity and quality resulting in underfed dairy cows, which such reach out only to a limited percentage of their production potential. Cows require 50-60 kg of high quality of fresh feed/day to be healthy and productive. Most of the cows do not get this quantity, nor is the quality of the feed provided, meeting their nutritional requirements. Dried maize stokes, overaged Napier or low quality hay are frequent feeds and the productivity of the cows is consequently low. Production of forages can change the situation towards the better. Farmers planting forages and feeding them to their cows report on significant increased milk productivity. Consultants of the Dutch Senior expert service recommend to feed dairy cows ideally on fresh high quality forage as this is ideal for the intake, digestibility and productivity of the cows.  On farm produced forage is also a way to bring down costs, which is important as feeding accounts for 60 – 70 % of the costs in dairy production. If the dairy farmer finds a way to bring down this cost factor, the production of milk will becomes more economic and the profitability of the farm will increase.  In conclusion: - on farm forage production is increasing the quantity and quality of the available feed.  - feeding forages to the cows is increasing their milk production  - producing own forage brings down feeding costs      Production of forages and land size needed to feed one cow If a dairy cow is exclusively fed on fresh forage: Need of forage /cow / year: 50-60 kg / cow / day x 365 =18.250 – 21,900 kg /cow /year     Average 55 kg /cow/day x 365 = 20,075 kg /cow / year  Need of land:    Table 1: Example1; production data from Magut and Leketeton farms (Eldoret) for fresh forage  Forage (fresh) Prod kg FM /ha/year Prod/year : 20 t = numbers of cows fed /ha Need of land to feed 1 cow exclusively on fresh forage Brachiaria Mulato2 40 t  40t : 20 t/cow=2 0.5 ha Brachiaria Cayman 51 t 51t : 20 t/cow=2,5 0.4 ha Panicum Mombasa 50 t 50t : 20 t/cow=2,5 0.4 ha   If a dairy cow is exclusively fed on dry matter (hay) Need of kg DM / cow / day:  12 -15 kg depending on the body weight of the cow Need of kg DM / cow / year:  Average 13.5 kg / cow / day x 365 = 4927 kg   Table 2: Example2; production data from Kagura ATC and Chure dairy from trials on cutting regime for dry matter. In brackets production range Forage Prod kg DM/ha/year (range) Prod / year : 4,92t/year/cow= number of cows fed/ha Need of land to feed 1 cow exclusively on Brachiaria Basilisk 17.84 (15,24 – 20.46) 17,84 : 4,92 = 3.62 0.276 ha Brachiaria Cayman 23.52 (18.62 – 28.42 23.52 : 4.92 = 4.78 0.209 ha Panicum Mombasa 16.54 (10.61 – 22.46) 16.54 : 4.92 = 3.36 0.298 ha      Remark: Many farmers in the Meru area favour Panicum Mombassa and Panicum Tanzania due to the high biomass production. This is not reflected in the above productivity numbers and leaves some questions open and has to be further assessed.            Increase of productivity per cow after change of feeding to a stronger forage based diet  Table 3: Four examples of increasement of milk production based on interviews with farmers in the Meru area. All the farmers interviewed have high potential exotic breeds, mainly Frisian and Holstein Farmer Cows total (milking cows) Average prod of cows before Average prod of cows after Increase average per cow in l (%) Increase in income / cow /year (KES)* Total income from milk sales/year (KES) Bernard Gitobu 11 (4) (8-9 l)  20 l (T: 80 l) 11 l (122 %) 3305 l / cow 114.070  (T: 456.000) 829.600 Joseph Gatobu 29 (12) 18 l (total 212 l) 24 l (T: 300 l ) 6 l (33 %) 1830 l / cow 62.220 (T: 746.640) 3.111.000 Geoffrey Muuru 5 (2) 15 l 18 l 3 l (20 %) 915 l / cow 31.110 (T: 62.220) 373.320 Rachel Kinyua 15 (6) 13 l (T: 40 l – from 3 cows) 26 l (T: 160 l – from 6 cows) 13 l (100 %) 3965 l / cow 134.810 (T: 808.860) 1.659.200 *Lactation period: 305 days/year, price per l of milk 34 KES Establishment cost for one ha of forages based on 20 farms from our Cost-Benefit Analysis (Virginia Mwangi, 2019) and info received from Climate smart Brachiaria Project. Establishment cost for one ha of forages is about 110.000 KES. Based on experiences from South and Latin America forage plots can be harvested for at least 10 years without decrease of yield. Colleagues from CIAT’s Tropical Forages have even seen forages plots used for more than 20 years without reestablishment.  Calculating a time of use of 10 years the cost per year are 11.000 KES/ha for establishment. Yearly maintenance costs for the plots are calculated on a basis of 20 farmers interviewed for the cost benefit analysis. The average costs for maintenance / ha / year was calculated with 149.000 KES. This number is highly doubtable even that it is based on farmer interviews. Maintenance costs cannot be higher as the establishment costs; as costs for land preparation, seeds, planting and more intensive weeding do only account in the first year, while manure application and harvesting costs are the main cost factors from year two on. The origin forms show that e.g.  - Magut (Eldoret) applied 36.000 kg wet manure on 2 acres, which translates to about 4.4 kg / m2, doubts are justified, if that is realistic. In addition, the value of 10 KES / kg of wet manure seems to be overestimated. A value of 3 KES / kg of dry manure seems to be the more realistic price (info from CIAT’s long term trial responsible, 2019)  - Joseph Kimati applied 360 kg of dry manure on ¼ acre, which translates to 0.360 kg / m2. The involved labour costs are 6 hours, which seems to be realistic, while 30 days each for harvesting 1000 m2 is not possible.  - Another farmer claimed having applied a quantity of manure, which would represent an amount of 40 kg of dry manure / m2, which is far from being realistic.  - There are more such examples, though we have to estimate the costs for maintenance; taking harvest costs and manure application as the main cost factors, the yearly maintenance cost can be estimated at maximum 50.000 KES/ ha / year. That gives a realistic cost of 61.000 KES / ha forage / year.  Table 4: Profit per cow / year calculated for four commercial oriented farmers in the Meru area based on the productivity data for forages from Table 1 and 2 and the increase in milk productivity by a stronger forage oriented feeding  Farmer Forage necessary to feed 1 cow / year  Prod cost forage / year / cow Additional income from higher milk production / year / cow Profit per cow / year Bernard Gitobu Br. Basilisk 0.34 ha 61,000 x 0.34 20,740 KES  114,000  93,260 KES  Br. Cayman 0.30 ha 61,000 x 0.30 18,300 KES  114,000  95,700 KES  Br. Mulato 2 0.5 ha 61,000 x 0.5 30,500 KES  114,000  84,000 KES  P. Mombasa 0.30 ha 61,000 x 0.30 18,300 KES  114,000  95,700 KES  Farmer  Forage necessary to feed 1 cow / year Prod cost forage / year / cow Additional income from higher milk production / year / cow Profit per cow / year Joseph Gatobu Br. Basilisk 0.34 ha  20,740 KES  62,200  41,460 KES  Br. Cayman 0.30 ha  18,300 KES  62,200  43,900 KES  Br. Mulato 2 0.5 ha  30,500 KES  62,200  31,700 KES  P. Mombasa 0.30 ha  18,300 KES  62,200  43,900 KES  Farmer Forage necessary to feed  1 cow / year Prod cost forage / year / cow Additional income from higher milk production / year /cow Profit per cow / year Geoffrey Muuru Br. Basilisk 0.34 ha  20,740 KES  31,100 KES  10,360 KES  Br. Cayman     0.30 ha 18,300 KES 31,100 KES 12,800 KES  Br. Mulato 2 0.50 ha  30,500 KES  31,100 KES        600 KES  P. Mombasa 0.30 ha  18,300 KES  31,100 KES  12,800 KES  Farmer Forage necessary to feed 1 cow / year Prod costs forage / year / cow Additional income from higher milk production / year / cow Profit per cow / year Rachael Kinyua Br. Basilisk 0.34 ha  20.740 KES  134,810 KES  114,070 KES  Br. Cayman 0.30 ha  18.300 KES  134,810 KES  116,510 KES  Br. Mulato 2 0.50 ha  30.500 KES  134,810 KES  104,310 KES  P. Mombasa 0.30 ha  18.300 KES  143,810 KES  116,510 KES  This description of a business case is not claiming to be scientific; it is based on forage production measurement from four different sites in Meru and Eldoret undertaken over six respective 12 months. As productivity of forages depends on many factors like soil quality, natural rainfall patterns, altitude but also on forage management like fertilizer / manure application, cutting regime or additional irrigation, it is impossible to give exact predictions about harvests for a specific site. The quantity of forage production is highly dependent on the environment and the management of the plots and the potential is high and profitable. In the described business case, the forage is fed on farm to the dairy cows and increased in all cases the productivity of the dairy cows. It is known that the productivity of cows depends on many factors. Genetic potential, health, cow comfort are important, but the most important influence is given by the feeding. The above calculations are made under the estimation that all other influencing factors were kept stable and that the cows are entirely fed on forages. In reality the diet is composed of different origins (Napier, sweet potato vines, Rhodes grass hay, silage) but all interviewed farmers reported  the above noted productivity increases since the improved forages are more dominant in the feeding of their cows. It can be estimated that also local breads fed on forages will increase their productivity, but if it will be profitable will depend on the increase of the milk yield versus forage production costs, but all feeding is expensive and it would be interesting to compare other feeding costs to self-produced forage.  Conclusion Even without referring to concrete numbers, all the farmers increased their profit per cow. The increase however differs, but the greater picture is that producing and feeding fresh forage to dairy cows has in general a positive effect and can be recommended to farmers.  

Forage production and on farm feeding of the produced forages

https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/10568/106915/1/3.4.1.8.3%20Forage%20prod.%20and%20on%20farm%20feeding%2c%20Business%20case.pdf

Forage production and on farm feeding of the produced forages

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

CGSpace (CGIAR)