Abstract
The main objective of the study was to develop technology for improving utilization of abundant quantities of under- utilized crop residues and leguminous plants during the dry season to mitigate effects of dry season on milk yield. The study was set up to test practical ways of upgrading low quality roughage and their effect on milk yield. A 22 factorial experiment within a Completely Randomised Design (CRD) was used. The study involved improving the quality of maize stover using urea fertilizer (UF), chopped groundnut (cGS) and soybean (cSS) stover, mineralized groundnut (mGS) and mineralized soybean (mSS) solution as sources of nitrogen. Research findings revealed superiority of UET over both groundnut and soybean stover in improving the quality of maize stover. Across legume types, groundnut stover had a higher positive effect on improving the quality of maize stover in terms of milk yield. Within legume stover type mGS showed superior milk yield values than cGS. The reverse was true for soybean stover. The study indicated the effect of improving maize stover with cSS on milk yield was higher than that of mSS in improving the quality of maize stover. It was generally observed that the use of mineralization of legume stover in improving the quality of maize stover is more effective than chopping. Pooled result of effect of mineralised groundnut and soybean stover on milk yield was significantly (p<0.05) higher than that of the chopped forms for the same legume stover. When evaluated across legume type the effect of legume type on milk yield did not differ significantly (p>0.05) for both processing methods.
Highlights
In recent decades, developing countries have increased their share in global dairy production
Milk yield was highest for animals fed on maize stover treated with Urea Ensiling and lowest for maize stover improved by addition of chopped soybean stover (Fig. 1 and 2)
Average milk yield for cows fed maize stover treated with mineralized groundnut stover solution and chopped groundnut stover were 7.88ltrs (s.e=1.0) and 7.80ltrs (s.e=1.0) respectively (Table 1)
Summary
In recent decades, developing countries have increased their share in global dairy production. This growth is mostly the result of an increase in numbers of milk producing animals rather than a rise in productivity per head. Pandey and Voskuil (2011) pointed out that the recommended annual consumption of milk by the WHO and FAO report is in the range of 200 million litres per year [3]. The 600,000 small-scale producers provide for onfarm domestic consumption and the estimated production from this sub-sector in 1982 was 28 million litres [4]. The 100 large-scale dairy farms, including 11 state farms were estimated to have produced about 10.5 million litres during the same period (Pandey and Voskuil, 2011) [2]
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