Feeding Strategy to Support Small Ruminants Industry

Abstract

A small ruminant farming is dominated (92%) by traditional farming which is characterized by small scale farming and raised as part of a farming system. While the rest, are conducted in semi-commercial (7%) and commercial (1%) systems. In traditional system, farmers do not consider efficiency in small ruminant production. However, the current need of small ruminant are for religious festivity or consumption. Increasing demand as meat consumption, leads to improving the farming toward high production efficiency. Increased production efficiency can be done through breeding, feeding and management. Feeding has an important role in improving small ruminant production. To achieve high productivity of small ruminant breeds to their genetic potentcy, meeting their nutrient requirements are necessary. The forage is important to maintain high productivity; therefore forage should be available throughout the year. To guarantee the availability of feed throughout the year, agro-industrial byproducts can be utilized as source of fiber or as source of energy and protein. Crop byproducts in general contain highly lignified cell wall, therefore processing technologies are needed to improve their quality and at the same time to correct nutrient inadequacy in these feeds. Supplementation can be done using forage legume as cheap protein source or using feed concentrate from agro-industrial byproducts. Offering feed in the form of complete feed is able to overcome low palatability and bulkiness of feed from agro-industrial byproducts, and at the same time to balance nutrients in the diet