Fodder Production and Grassland Management

EFFICIENT FEED RATION

• In  formulating  the  most  efficient  and  economic  ration  for livestock,  one  must  select ingredients that  supply  basic  animal  requirements - energy,  protein, minerals  and  vitamins  to  maintain  the  growth, yield  and  health  of  the  animals. 
• Initially  farmers  relied almost  entirely  upon  food  grains  and  roughage grown  on  the  farm  to  feed  their livestock.  Now it  is  discovered  that  the  byproducts  of  milling,  meat packing,  oil  seed  processing  and  other  processing  industries  had  considerable  feed   value as  they  not  only  contain  substantial  amount  of  protein  but  also   furnish  minerals  and  vitamins  lacking   in  the  feed  grains  and  roughages.
• Use  of  non-conventional  raw  materials  for  animal  feeding  is  thought  of,  which  not  only  helps  to  reduce  the  feed  cost,  but  also  helps  to  conserve  food  grains  and  other  material  for human  consumption. eg: Oil  cakes,  brans,  husks,  wastes  from  dal  mills,  slaughter  houses, etc.
• Usually  the  ration  for  the animals  consists  of  green fodder ,  dry  fodder  and  concentrates. The  green and  dry  fodders  can  be  from  cereals or grasses and  also  legumes.
• Dry fodder refers to the dried crop after removal of the grains such as Paddy straw, Wheat straw, Maize stalk, Sorghum stalk etc., Concentrates are the crop by products such as groundnut oil cake, cotton seed cake, sesamum oil cake  etc. 
• A  concentrate  is prepared  by mixing  different  ingredients  to  meet  the  animal  needs. These  would  be grains,  cakes, some  bran  and  other  items  along  with  essentials  like  mineral  mixture,  salt,  etc. 
• Depending  on  the   availability  and  economics, any  one  can  be  chosen.  Quantities of green fodder, dry fodder and concentrates to be fed per cattle per day is very important . This is decided based on the type of cattle, its daily nutritional requirements and milk yield.