Livestock feeding management at smallholder dairy farms in Uttaranchal hills

Abstract

The present study attempts to common portray a picture of livestock fodder flows in and feeding practices at smallholder
dairy farms in the hills of Uttaranchal.n property resources (CPRs), such as forests and grasslands on community land,
serve as the largest base for fodder extraction in the region. Private property resources (PPRs), i.e., cropland largely
managed as agro-forestry systems, are the other prominent sources of fodder in the region. On an average, 83% of dry
fodder in the form of crop residues is grown on cultivated land (PPR) and only 17% comes as grass hay from CPRs. Maximum amount of dry fodder (29%) is contributed bywheat straw (share of upland wheat straw alone being 23%), followed by barnyard miler (20%), grass hay (17%), finger millet (16%), rice (14%), barley and maize straw (each about 2%). Oak (Quercus leucotrichophora) leaves comprised about 12% of the green fodder available for livestock. Green grass (hand-cut) accounts for 35% of the total greens, while gazed grass as high as 49%. Tree leaves amounted to only about 16% and green grasses as high as 84% of the total greens. While virtually entire grazed grass is the product of the CPRs, most of the hand-cut grass (including weeds growing in the fields) comes from the PPRs. Scenario of feeding management would vary according to altitude, i.e., location of a dairy farm. The dismal state of the livestock feeding in the area is that the requirement in each village is far more than the actual availability of fodder. Average shortage of green fodder is 26% and that of dry fodder as high as 77%. This situation, obviously, becomes the major reason for poor performance of livestock in the region. A dairy farm in the sampled villages, on an average, provides only 100 kg concentrate feed to the dairy animals in a year, a bulk of which (77kg) is produced at home. A dairy farm in a Village Dairy Cooperative (VDC) will feed much more concentrates, both home-produced and purchased, to the dairy animals than its counter part in other villages though it is far below the standards of dairy animal feeding. A VDC depends on some 32% purchased feed, a figure that is much higher than that for other villages. Concentrate feed is generally fed to the animals in milk, and other monopolised for the buffaloes in lactation stage.