Büyükbaş Hayvancılık İşletmelerinde Çayır Otu Silajının Benimsenmeme Nedenleri: Doğu Karadeniz Bölgesi, Türkiye

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the reasons for livestock farmers not using forage crops for silage in the Eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey, considering farmers’ socioeconomic characteristics and communication and behavior. In addition, this study aimed at determining measures to be taken by the farmers, producer organizations, and public institutions in order to publisize the grass silage in the region. The research data were obtained from the surveys conducted with 278 livestock farms, calculated according to the stratified random sampling method based on the number of livestock owned by farmers. According to the research results; it has been revealed that the number of animals per farm is low, most of the farms operate as family farms, and they experience economic difficulties to improve their farms. Although there is a lack of roughage fodders, especially in winter season, grass silage was not preferred to correspond this need. Most of the farmers stated that they were not aware that it was possible to make silage from the grass, which is common in the region. The main factors effective on not making silage from grass were; the number of animals was low, farmers were over middle age and the land was small. Therefore, farmers do not tend to increase their income by putting different applications and technologies in their business. Public institutions and producer organizations should cooperate with farmers to carry out various research and extension activities in order to accelerate the adoption and diffusion of grass silage that provides cheap and high quality roughage fodder in the region