Feasibility of using bean crop residues for feeding sheep during dry season shortage: implications for economic and environmental resilience

Abstract

ABSTRACT In Cuba, beans are part of the traditional gastronomy and livelihood of the people. During bean harvest, farmers generate high volumes of stubble, which they burn, thus adversely affecting soil health and organic matter, air quality, and greenhouse gas emissions. Bean harvest occurs during the dry season, a period of feed shortage for livestock, such that integrating farming and livestock production could be a way to feed and fatten sheep at little cost. We assessed the feasibility of feeding bean stubble to sheep by determining 1) volumes produced and nutritional value of stubble, 2) acceptability, performance, and carcass yields of lambs fed stubble, and 3) feasibility for this integrated farming-livestock system at local and regional levels. During harvest, 650 tons of stubble are produced in the municipality of Morón by 190 farmers, which represents a potential to feed more than 3,500 lambs, with acceptable average daily gains of 90 g per day with minimal supplementation. We thus affirm this is a viable technological practice with economic, ecological, and social implications as an acceptable alternative to burning stubble to enhance food security and livelihoods of small and medium-sized farms, while generating new employment opportunities, especially for rural women. Future studies are needed to evaluate the economic, ecological, and social impacts of this agriculture-livestock integration technology.