Supply Of Quality Feed Research Articles

Effect of feeding enzyme-treated Moringa (M. oleifera) leaf meal based-diets on egg quality of improved indigenous layer chicken in Kenya

The egg quality of indigenous chicken in Kenya is low due to inadequate supply of quality feed which can only be achieved by nutritional improvement. Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MOLM) provides proteins, vitamins, minerals and ox carotenoids that have a positive effect on the quality of eggs. The objective of this research was to determine the influence of MOLM on egg quality traits of improved indigenous laying hens. Ninety chicken (90) were assigned to six treatment diets in a completely randomised design with a factorial layout, each treatment having 5 birds per cage, replicated three times. The dietary treatments were: T1 – 0 kg MOLM and 0 g enzyme, T2 – 0 kg MOLM and 0.035 g enzyme, T3-20 kg MOLM and 0 g enzyme, and T4 – 20 kg MOLM and 0.035 g enzyme, T5-40 kg MOLM and 0 g enzyme, T6-40 kg MOLM and 0.035 g enzyme of the diet, respectively. The egg weight in hens fed with MOLM-based diets increased significantly (p 0.05). The laying hens fed a diet with 40 percent MOLM inclusion significantly had a higher (p

Management Practices and Production Constraints of Indigenous Somali Cattle Breed in Shabelle Zone, Somali Regional State, Ethiopia

This study was conducted in Shabelle zone of Somali Regional State to assess management practices and production constraints of indigenous Somali Cattle. A total of 200 household heads were selected from four cattle potential districts; Dhanan, Ber’ano, Godey & Adadle. The relevant information was collected through semi-structured questionnaire, focus group discussion, key informants interview, and personal observations. Majority of the respondents were illiterate. The average cattle holding size was 8.97 heads/household and cattle were mainly kept for milk production. The major feed resources in the study area were natural pasture and crop residue, and communal grazing was the most important feeding system in the area. Feed shortage was a problem hindering cattle production in the study area during dry season mainly January up to March. Animals traveled long distances to watering points (>5 km) during dry season, while in wet season, animals were watered in nearby water sources. Cattle housing was open kraal fenced with the thorned plenty acacia trees and calves were housed separately from other cattle. Breeding in the study area was uncontrolled and was bred with their own or neighbors’ bull. Age at first mating, age at first calving and calving interval were 3.25 years, 4.05 years and 16.56 months, respectively. The daily milk yield and lactation length were 2.22 liters and 8.07 months, respectively. The production and reproduction performance of Somali cattle was relatively higher than other local breeds in the country mainly in terms of milk yield and fertility potential under the existing environmental conditions. The major constraints of cattle production were feed shortage, disease, water scarcity, lack of veterinary services, marketing problem and predator. Among those constraints, inadequate supply of quality feed, diseases and water shortage were the main reasons for low productivity of cattle and are the major factors limiting productivity. Therefore, to sustain the production system in the study areas, it is recommended to improve the current condition of communal rangelands through management of degraded areas by awareness creation on the value of these common resources and development of rules and regulation to sustain the existing resource and implement over the utilization of communal/pastoral rangeland management systems to reduce constraints such as shortage of feed, drought and grazing land deterioration which perpetuated through time due to land-use changes and seasonal fluctuation).

Livestock feed resources in the West African Sahel.

Limited supply of quality feed is the most important factor limiting livestock productivity in many sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries. Having a systematic inventory of available feed resources, identifying main challenges and potentials for improvement is the first step towards designing development strategies to improve feed quality and quantity. The objective of this study was to review the available feed resources and their quality in West African Sahel across different agro‐ecological zones and to identify the research gaps and strategies to improve feed resource availability. The West African Sahelian zone is home to 135 million people who herd 173 million head of ruminant livestock. The main feed resources for grazing ruminants are pastures and crop residues; commercially formulated feeds are increasingly being used in poultry and pig production, particularly in peri‐urban areas. Feed resources for livestock are diverse and vary markedly across agro‐ecological zones in the West African Sahel and across seasons in terms of type, quantity, and quality. Given that crop residues are among the most important feed resources, there is need to invest in promoting adoption of proven methods for improving their quality and preserving it. Given poorly developed feed markets in the Sahelian rural areas and cities, strengthening the feed value chain is critical for improving the feed resource base in West Africa. Additional critically important needs are to increase awareness about the importance of feed quality, to create quality‐based feed marketing systems, and to appreciate and enhance women's roles in feed production.

Gender and livestock feed research in developing countries: A review

AbstractLivestock productivity and the resulting economic benefits for smallholder farmers are constrained by a limited supply of quality feed. Gender influences both the drivers and constraints for feed technology adoption as well as the distribution of benefits from feed technologies; however, research with gender‐disaggregated data related to livestock feed practices and technologies has not previously been systematically collected and analyzed. This review examines the current scope and patterns in the literature and highlights opportunities that could benefit future livestock feeding research. The review identified 72 articles with gender‐disaggregated data related to livestock feeding, which were analyzed thematically based on the type of gender data collected: division of labor (44 articles), decision making (eight articles), knowledge (nine articles), and technology adoption (11 articles). Across nine different feed activities, women had a comparatively higher level of involvement than men in 49% of the observations (81), whereas men were more involved than women in 48% of the observations (79); equal involvement accounted for the remaining 3% of the observations (n = 7). However, individual feed tasks showed stronger involvement trends toward men or women. Women were more likely to be involved in the provision of feed to livestock than men (69% of observations, 24 observations), whereas men had higher levels of participation than women in fodder collection (54%, 19 observations) and grazing and herding (65%, 33 observations). Future research on women's roles in feed‐related activities could help to improve adoption, scaling, and sustainability of feed improvement interventions through the use of gender‐sensitive data collection tools.

Near‐infrared reflectance spectroscopy for forage nutritive value analysis in sub‐Saharan African countries

AbstractLimited supply of quality feed is the most common problem limiting livestock productivity in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). Routine feed evaluation is indispensable for formulating balanced rations, feed characterization, safety, and minimizing the environmental impact of livestock. Traditional wet chemistry has not met this demand in SSA because it is time consuming, expensive, reliant on imported reagents and equipment that requires regular maintenance. Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) is a rapid and accurate alternative. The NIRS can help meet the need to characterize locally available forages and feeds on the continent, thus allowing formulation of optimally balanced and safe rations, facilitating establishment of nutritive value‐based pricing, and improving feed marketing and environmental stewardship. Though several NIRS systems have been purchased in many SSA countries, few are currently used. Reasons include high upfront costs, lack of requisite technical capacity, lack of access to comprehensive wet chemistry‐based databases to develop and validate robust and accurate predictive equations, lack of access to or relevance of existing validated equations, and limited awareness about the value of NIRS. Recently developed portable devices can dramatically reduce cost, while providing flexibility and comparable accuracy to benchtop systems. Formation of NIRS consortia and communities of practice including public–private partnerships that link equipment, pool resources, and provide periodic training and troubleshooting, can address many of these problems. This paper elaborates the potential for using NIRS to improve feed analysis in SSA countries, the reasons for the low use of existing systems, and strategies to improve the adoption and use of NIRS.

Improving adoption of technologies and interventions for increasing supply of quality livestock feed in low- and middle-income countries

The global increase in the demand for and production of animal-source foods (four-to five-fold increase between 1960 and 2015), which has been mostly concentrated in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), provides smallholder livestock producers with an opportunity for improving their livelihoods and food and nutrition security. However, across livestock production systems in many LMIC, limited supplies and high cost of good quality feed severely constrains exploitation of this opportunity. In many of such countries, feeds and feeding-related issues are often ranked as the primary constraint to livestock production and increased consumption of animal-source foods. Here we review the complex biophysical, socio-economic and technological challenges related to improving quality feed supply and the reasons for generally low adoption of apparently proven feed enhancement technologies. We describe also successful interventions and conclude by recommending strategies for improving quality feed supply in LMIC that account for and overcome the prevailing challenges.

Regional Animal Feed Action Plan for East Africa: why, what, for whom, how used and benefits

Abstract Livestock are a crucial source of food, employment, and income for much of East Africa’s rural population. The sector contributes substantially to export revenues, national GDPs, and thus the region’s broader socioeconomic development. Livestock production and related value chains, can be the foundation of resilience and sustainable development for pastoral, agro-pastoral, and mixed crop livestock systems in East Africa. Yet, livestock face a wide range of challenges, particularly in terms of ensuring sustainable access to and use of water and feeds for livestock. Inadequate availability and supply of quality feed and water critically limit the efficiency of livestock in terms of production, reproduction, animal health and welfare, human health, and the economic benefits derived from livestock-based livelihoods in the region. Countries in East Africa identified lack of animal feed policy, strategy, and institutional framework to support the animal feed sector as a major constraint hindering subsector growth, livestock productivity, resilience, and trade. In order to address this, the first Animal Feed Action Plan was developed for East Africa through a consultative and participatory process. The Action Plan captures experiences and lessons learned by a wide spectrum of stakeholders. It provides a means to collectively address some of the constraints in accessing and using animal feed and provides a guided approach to establish partnership by countries, communities, the private sector, and stakeholders to enhance sustainable production of quality livestock and products. The Action Plan is believed to set a good example for other regions to develop their feed action plan.

Reflections on the concept, conduct and findings of the producer-led Cicerone Project

The Cicerone Project began as a producer-led partnership that sought, over a period of 8 years, to enhance the profitability and sustainability of livestock enterprises by improving the connection between those producers, research and extension. Following a detailed survey, the research and extension needs of livestock producers were identified and several applied investigations were conducted to meet those needs and delivered through a range of extension activities. This final paper of the Cicerone Special Issue reflects on the entire Project from a wide array of perspectives, including livestock producers, researchers, extension specialists and staff employed by the Project, all of whom are authors of this paper. A notable early successful outcome of the Project was the improved precision of footrot diagnosis, which has been of value to the entire sheep industry, and that flowed from a field investigation of benign and virulent footrot combined with detailed genetic investigations, which led to an improved testing regime. This paper also reflects on the findings of an unreplicated agricultural ecosystem research trial, which measured the impact of pasture renovation, increased soil fertility and grazing management on the profitability and sustainability of three different 53-ha farmlets. Valuable findings from this whole-farmlet trial included the need for a high quality feed supply for increasing stocking rate and animal liveweights; the ability and utility of satellite imagery to detect changes in pasture growth, composition and recent grazing pressure; the value of short grazing and long rest periods for controlling Barber’s pole worms of sheep; the impact of increased stocking rates on whole-farm profitability and risk; methods of optimising decisions relating to pasture renovation, fertiliser applications and grazing management; and an integrated analysis of all key measured components of the farmlet management systems. Collectively, these findings were powerful as they were demonstrated at a scale credible to livestock producers using the ‘compare – measure – learn – adopt’ approach, which was the key philosophy adopted by the Cicerone Project. By comparing and measuring different whole-farm systems, and by ensuring that producers had ownership of the trial process, the Project successfully delivered objective findings that producers trusted and which increased our understanding of important drivers of complex grazing enterprises under variable climatic conditions. Some of these drivers included: the influence of soil phosphorus on botanical composition and subsequent livestock production, the role of pasture renovation and soil fertility on herbage supply, herbage quality and stocking rate, and the improved gastrointestinal nematode control delivered by intensive rotational grazing. The beneficiaries of the Project included the 180 farmer members who participated in some 61 field days and workshops; the research and extension collaborators including four postgraduates who completed their research investigations in conjunction with the Project; and some 500 undergraduate and 300 technical students who benefited from coming to understand the applied field comparisons of the three whole-farmlet systems. Having livestock producers play a significant leadership role led to valuable outcomes achieved with research collaborators; this should encourage the development of other learning partnerships which aim to explore complex farming system issues.

Adapting livestock water productivity to climate change

PurposeThe main purposes of this paper were to assess effects of smallholder farmers access to livelihood capital (e.g. land, livestock and water) on livestock water productivity (LWP) and to evaluate impacts of selected interventions in reducing livestock water demand (per unit of livestock product) and therefore increasing LWP.Design/methodology/approachA total of 203 sample farm households were selected in intensive and semi‐intensive crop‐livestock systems of Indo‐Ganga basin of India. A household survey was undertaken to capture data on land, water and livestock management. For the analysis, sample farms were clustered into poor, medium, better‐off. LWP is estimated as a ratio of livestock beneficial‐outputs (e.g. milk) to depleted‐water (i.e. evapotranspired water to produce livestock feed). Impacts of selected interventions, on LWP, were analyzed using scenarios developed on a spread sheet model.FindingsThe results showed different LWP values among farm‐clusters and levels of intensification. The intensive systems showed higher LWP than the semi‐intensive. In the baseline, dairy water demand to produce a liter of milk was higher than the world average: ranging between 1,000 and 29,000 L. Among the farm‐clusters, variation of LWP was system specific and affected by farmers' access to virtual water trading (i.e. milk and feed). Improving milk productivity, feed quality and feed water productivity reduced livestock water demand per liter of milk substantially and, therefore, the saved water can be used to augment ecosystem services that can mitigate the impacts of climate change.Originality/valueThis paper revealed that in the study systems LWP, in the business as usual scenario, is low. But by improving animal productivity, quality feed supply and water conservation substantial volume of water can be saved.

Entry Barriers in Rural Business

Market liberalisation should ideally enhance the chances for development of rural business. Yet, entry barriers in poor areas are still high and local resources like land and labour, remain underutilised. This article searches for reasons behind entry barriers in one specific business, in rural Indonesia, namely layer egg production. In Indonesia, the poultry business is strongly concentrated in Java, and the huge populations on other islands are practically without commercial egg producers. Egg prices in these regions are therefore high and quality is low. The research is based on fieldwork in five of Indonesia's islands: Java, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, and Flores. Traditional entry barriers, like capital costs, economies of scale, brand loyalty, and technological development, are found to be low. Main explanations for the lack of entry by small-scale entrepreneurs are: limited information and knowledge; uncertainties due to the concentration and market dominance by powerful business groups. The gap is wide between those who know and control and those who do not. Lowering entry barriers into layer egg and feed production is mainly a matter of increasing competence at the household level, but institutional changes are also required. Government institutions should play a stronger role in competence development, and local cooperatives could facilitate stable supply of quality feed.

Biotechnological approaches to modify rapeseed oil composition for applications in aquaculture

Over the next two decades, aquaculture is expected to contribute more to the global supply of fish for food use and thus further help to reduce global poverty and food insecurity. One major challenge for aquaculture production is a future stable, predictable and high quality feed supply. Marine oils represent 40% of today's feed, but an increased price and reduced availability is expected to cause a demand for alternative oil resources in the near future. In consequence, the use of vegetable oils as feed for farmed carnivorous cold-water fish is increasing. Although beneficial in some respects, this requires improved fatty acid composition in plants such as soybean or rapeseed to meet the nutritional demands of farmed fish. Plants might be adapted to meet these needs by the use of functional genomics. Although most genes encoding enzymes of storage lipid biosynthesis have been identified and cloned, fatty acid regulation at the molecular level is not fully understood. Potential replacement of marine resources with plant ingredients demands extensive multidisciplinary efforts. Combinations of basic understanding of gene function, transgene integration and expression, gene interactions, fatty acid metabolism in plants and animals and finally public acceptance have to be gained. Transgenic plants with increased amounts of 18:1 n-9 (oleic acid) and 18:3 n-3 (α-linolenic acid) fatty acids in the seed olesomes, and extensions of these into longer fatty acids (e.g. 20:5 n-3 and 22:6 n-3) using seed specific promoters would improve rapeseed (Canola) quality for use as fish feed.

Towards a sustainable livestock production in developing countries and the importance of animal health strategy therein.

Livestock and animal health development projects have not always led to substantial increases in animal productivity or in farmers' welfare. Some have even resulted in unsustainable systems, when they were not based on an understanding of (livestock) production systems. The multipurpose functions of livestock and complex relationships between the biological, technical and social components require a systems approach, whereby nutrition, animal health, breeding, biotechnology knowhow, inputs and technologies are used to optimise resource use. The challenge for developed and developing countries is to reverse the current degradation of the environment, and arrive at sustainable increases in crop and livestock production to secure present and future food supplies. For rural development, governments should show long term commitment and political will to support the rural population in development programmes, because smallholders (including women and landless livestock keepers) represent a large labour force in developing countries. Different systems need different approaches. Pastoral systems must focus on effective management of grazing pressure of the rangelands. Communal rangelands management involves not only the development and application of technologies (e.g. feedlots, vaccination campaigns), but also land tenure policies, institutional development, economic return and a reduction in the number of people depending upon livestock. Smallholder mixed farms must aim at intensification of the total production system, in which external inputs are indispensable, but with the emphasis on optimum input-output relationships by reducing resource losses due to poor management. Resource-poor farming systems must aim at the improved management of the various livestock species in backyards and very small farms, and proper packages for cattle, buffaloes, sheep, goats, rabbits and poultry should be developed. Specialised commercial livestock farming systems (poultry, pigs, dairy or meat) can only be sustainable with adequate marketing, supply of quality feed, veterinary services, labour, management and control of pollution. Animal health programmes play a keyrole in the proposed system approach.