| Options for Managing Seasonal Shortages: Seasonal Supplements |
Supplementing low quality roughages with small quantities of higher quality feeds can improve intake and utilisation of the roughage, leading to better animal performance. Although many smallholders cannot afford to buy concentrate feeds they may have access to higher quality forages to supplement poor quality roughages.
Options available to
livestock producers for managing seasonal feed
shortages include a combination of one or more of the following:
- Managing livestock breeding cycles. Breeding can be managed so that the major requirements for feed resources coincide with the growing season. Surplus stock is then sold early in the dry season. This, however, creates a situation where all farmers are trying to sell stock at the same time of year - with consequent impacts on the prices (see in the Marketing section). Conventional techniques for management of
seasonal dry periods often result in regional peaks
and troughs in the number and class of livestock
being sold. This depresses prices and means
that conventional but sustainable management may
not lead to the best returns.
- Managing livestock stocking rates. The
total number of livestock carried can be
managed so that there is enough standing
feed, and other fodder resources remaining at the beginning of the dry season
to maintain stock until the start next growing season.
- Feeding conserved forage. Feed harvested during the peak growing season as hay or silage can be fed to livestock during the dry period. (See under Feed Conservation, Hay, Legume Leaf Meal, and Silage for more information). In some situations, Kitchen Waste may also provide opportunities for feed supplementation.
- Seasonal movements. Livestock can be moved during seasonal periods of feed shortage, either to neighbouring areas which have not been grazed (transhumance), or can be moved to areas where the owner pays (cash or in kind) for them to be grazed.
- Use of fodder trees and shrubs. Fodder trees
and shrubs are less affected by seasonal dry conditions, because of their more extensive root systems and longer life-span, than typical herbaceous plants and grasses. Fodder trees and shrubs may be indigenous species growing naturally, or may be specifically planted to develop and maintain fodder banks - with combinations of indigenous and carefully selected exotic trees and shrubs. (See under Tree Fodder for more information on Agroforestry systems).
Using conserved feed or fodder agroforestry
systems to maintain stock during seasonal
dry periods increases the marketing and management choices available to livestock producers.
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| Options for Managing Seasonal Shortages: Quantity of Fodder |
Seasonal shortages are often caused by long dry seasons and/or by drought. Drought is a risk which needs to be managed by all
livestock producers. The extent of the risk and the
amount of effort that can be made and which is sensible for managing
drought varies with location. The process is essentially one of risk management. Some risks are more certain than others - for instance, in a seasonal climate, livestock keepers can be 100% certain that a dry season will occur. The length of the dry season is less well known but can be assessed on the basis of previous experience, whilst the risk of periodic drought is less certain still. Options available to
livestock producers for hedging against the risk of
drought include:
- Conservation of feed. Storing hay
and silage made during good seasons or buying it from external sources to maintain breeding stock through a drought.
- Feeding grain. Feeding grain to maintain breeding stock through a drought.
- Moving breeding stock to areas not affected by drought to maintain breeding stock through a drought.
- Growing drought fodder banks. This includes establishing
blocks of fodder trees and shrubs, perhaps as
shelter belts or erosion control plantings, which
can be selectively harvested during a drought.
Fodder from any one tree and shrub species in
isolation is unlikely to contain sufficient energy, protein and nutrients to meet the maintenance needs of livestock.
A mixture of fodder trees and shrubs is more likely to provide an effective drought bank.
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| Options for Managing Seasonal Shortages: Quality of Fodder |
The quality of forage depends on the nutrient and energy content of the feed as well as the digestibility. Most feed types are not sufficiently digestible or nutritious to meet all an animal’s needs on their own. Natural pasture or grazing land is a mixture of different species, and individual species are adapted to optimum growth, flowering and seed production at different parts of the seasonal cycle. Under constant grazing pressure, most natural pastures tend towards a monoculture.
This is why "improved" pastures typically mix legumes such as clover or stylo with high quality grasses. During the dry season, the available feed usually has poor digestibility because dry grass is rich in fibre (cellulose and lignin) whilst it is poor in sugars and protein. Providing protein and energy supplements helps livestock to make better use of dry season pastures. In this way feed supplements therefore increase the overall quality of dry pasture.
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Protein supplements to improve the quality of dry pastures can be provided in the form of:
- High protein conserved feed – such as lucerne hay.
- Manufactured high energy/high protein
supplements – such as urea/molasses licks.
- Quality fodder banks – managed as part of a
fodder agroforestry system.
Conserved feed with high protein content, such as lucerne hay, and manufactured supplements are
expensive and can have hidden costs such as weed
seeds in hay or urea poisoning in stock from too
much lick. Quality fodder banks, on the other
hand, can be established as fodder agroforestry
systems with a relatively low cost per unit of
protein or extra energy produced.
Quality protein supplements are most likely to come from high protein trees and shrubs such as legumes.
These produce:
- High energy and protein seed pods. These
should ideally ripen and fall later in the dry season
before the break of season when there is typically the greatest shortage of available grazing and when pregnant stock are nearing lambing or calving and require to have high quality and quantity of feed.
- High protein leaves – which can be fed or grazed whenever additional protein is needed.
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