Tropical Dairy Farming

Feeding Management for Small Holder Dairy Farmers in the Humid Tropics

John J. Moran, John Moran

• Publisher: Landlinks Press
• Year: 2005
• ISBN:
  9780643099760
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Animal Husbandry
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Tropical Dairy Farming is a manual designed for use by dairy production advisors working in tropical areas, especially in South-East Asia. It aims to increase the productivity of small holder dairy farmers in the humid tropics by improving the feeding management of their livestock. It shows how to provide dairy cows with cost-effective feeds that match small holder farming systems and discusses the major obstacles to improving feeding management in the humid tropics.

The author shows the benefits and drawbacks of various feed components and the calculation of balanced diets based mainly on forages combined with some supplementary feeding. Diseases and problems associated with unbalanced diets are also covered, as well as important information on growing and conserving quality forages as silage.

The book draws on examples from a variety of countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, China, East Timor and the Philippines.

1

Introduction

This chapter:

Presents an outline of the manual and its role in developing training programs for farmers and students. The skills in ration formulation are summarised. Some basic concepts in the nutrition of dairy cows and the terminology encountered throughout the manual are introduced.

The main points in this chapter:

• cows are ruminants

• the mature stomach of the cow has four chambers, the largest of which is the rumen

• cows are well adapted to a forage diet

• cows need water, energy, protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals in their diet.

1.1 The feeding manual

1.1.1 Aims of the manual

Readers of this manual will be able to calculate and provide their dairy cows and young stock with cost-effective feeds that match the targets of their particular farming system. Formulation of diets will be based on using forages first, then supplements. Practical experience will reinforce the understanding of dairy cow nutritive requirements, the benefits and drawbacks of various feed components as well as determining the optimal diet balance. Additional information is provided on growing and conserving quality forages as silage.

Readers will also develop a good understanding of problems encountered when milking cows are fed unbalanced diets, for example the metabolic diseases associated with poor nutrition. Small holders milk cows as a business and must make a profit to remain viable. This manual will teach readers how to calculate profit margins from small holder feeding systems.

The final chapter provides readers with a good understanding of some of the major obstacles to improving feeding management on small holder dairy farms in the humid tropics.

In summary, to develop the skills in supplying and formulating cost-effective rations for dairy stock, farmers need to:

• understand the nutritional requirements of cows and be able to express them in terms of dry matter, energy, protein and fibre
• compare feeds on the basis of their nutritive value
• understand the effect of nutrition on milk production, health and reproduction, and the growth of young dairy stock
• check whether a diet is balanced in terms of energy, protein and fibre
• understand how forages and feed supplements interact, including the factors that affect responses to supplements and how they determine the profitability of supplementary feeding
• calculate milk income less feed costs as a measure of profit
• understand the principles of growing quality forages
• understand the principles of making quality silage.

1.1.2 Outline of the manual

This manual is written for advisers, students and skilled farmers who produce milk from small holder dairy systems in the humid tropics. Much of the basic knowledge needed to understand how cows produce milk is explained in the following chapters.

Although small holders are the major suppliers of milk in the tropics, many larger farms with up to 1000 milking cows, both intensive feedlot and less intensive grazing systems, have been established throughout South-East Asia to satisfy the increasing demand for more fresh milk. Such farmers and their advisers will gain much from this manual. This manual also provides relevant and up-to-date background information to research scientists in many aspects of tropical dairy production, such as forage production and conservation, herd and feeding management and farm management economics. In addition, policy makers and senior managerial staff would benefit from reading selected chapters.

Most tropical countries have proactive programs to increase local supplies of milk, which require an increasingly trained workforce in the dairy industry. Consequently, educators from agricultural schools, universities and technical colleges need to keep abreast of the latest technical developments and applications in dairy farming. This manual also serves this purpose. Some suggestions on how this manual can be used in structured training programs have been presented in Table 1.1 (see Section 1.1.4)

Chapters 2 and 3 describe features of tropical small holder dairy systems and trends in dairy production in South-East Asia. Chapters 4 and 5 provide the elements of ruminant nutrition, highlighting the importance of the rumen as the key organ of digestion. Chapters 6 and 7 quantify requirements for feed nutrients in different demand phases of the cow’s lactation cycle.

Feed nutrients are supplied from a wide variety of sources: fresh forages (Chapter 8), conserved forages (Chapter 9), concentrates and forage supplements (Chapter 10), all of which interact when subjected to rumen digestion and metabolism (Chapter 11). The major goal of this manual is to formulate a diet (Chapter 12) for a desired level of animal performance. However, such a production diet may fail to achieve its target and some of the causes are discussed in Chapter 13.

Dairy stock make many demands on nutrients in addition to milk production, such as use in body reserves (Chapter 14), fertility (Chapter 15) and growth prior to calving (Chapter 16). Dairy farming is a business with a variety of economic measures of success. ‘Milk income less feed costs’ is relatively easy to monitor and provides a useful measure of economic efficiency (Chapter 17).

Milking cows store reserves as body tissue for later use as energy sources and a system for scoring changes in body reserves is described in Chapter 18. This scoring system then provides an objective assessment of how well cows are being fed in relation to their nutrient demands, which fluctuate markedly in the course of a single lactation.

Chapter 19 discusses some of the non-nutritional constraints to performance such as genetic merit, heat stress and effluent management, all major limiting factors for tropical dairying. Attention is also given to problems encountered when importing exotic genotypes into small holder tropical systems.

Much of the research into dairy feeding management over the last 20 years has more relevance for less hostile climates, namely in temperate countries where dairy farming has evolved into more sophisticated production systems. Chapter 20 highlights some of the developments and environmental considerations required for tropical dairy to become and remain more efficient and profitable.

Full publication details of all sources are presented in References and further reading. A glossary of technical terms and abbreviations used in the manual is also provided. Appendixes are included to facilitate sourcing specific information and gaining experience in ration formulation. Appendix 1 presents the Temperature Humidity Index, the universal method of quantifying heat stress in dairy stock. Appendix 2 provides conversion factors to the standard metric system from a wide variety of systems used for describing weights and measures. Appendix 3 presents a currency converter for South-East Asian countries as at February 2005. Tables of nutrient requirements are presented for vitamins and minerals (Appendix 4) and energy, protein and fibre (Appendix 5). Appendix 6 provides four scenarios and the opportunity to calculate nutrient requirements and then formulate the most cost-effective rations.

1.1.3 Sources of information

This manual draws on published information from many sources:

• Chapters 4, 5 and 6 (principles of the feeding management) were developed in Victoria during the late 1990s (Target 10 1999)
• Chapter 8 (growing forages) and Chapter 9 (silage making) were prepared for small holder farmer training programs in Indonesia (Moran 2001a, Mickan 2003)
• Chapter 15 (nutrition and fertility) was adapted from an Australian nationwide extension program ‘InCalf’ (Morton et al. 2003)
• Chapter 16 (nutrition and young stock) was adapted from my books on the calf and heifer management (Moran and McLean 2001, Moran 2002)
• Chapter 18 (body condition scoring) was developed by a team of Victorian dairy scientists (Robins et al. 2003).

The examples in the manual of practical feeding management were collected from both first-hand experience and published data from many So...