Animal Production with zero grazing

Thank you. Can you elaborate more on the energy distribution within the pro-poor dairy system of India? What are the efficiencies in nutrient utilization?

Thank you for your time. In the dairy cow nutrition the importance of forage is specified.It is evident that the feeding regiment thus evolved is composed of fodder fibre. The above system demands land for maintaining dairy cows. IIn India where population pressure was high diverting land from crop cultivation would make sever shortage of grains. In that circumstaces developing 'balanced cattle feed' with all necessary nutrients like protein, fat fibre and energy was done. This helped land less people to participate in dairying. That was the hidden success of white revolution which follwed the green refolution that made country self sufficient for grains. White revolution made country on top of milk prouction. Unfortunately, yielding to the models of dairying in developed countries India gradullay shifts from its old model of landless dairying. Therefore it is suggested to gofor better fed technology practices there by increase the nutrients availability from available agro-industrial byproducts and crop residues and natural herbages thereby leave land for crop cultivation.India has to evolve the model itsef as none is available today. Again depending on the the models of developed world would increase the country's dependence more and more.

IMPORTANT FUNDAMENTALS IGNORED
1/Fodders, especially grasses, are the natural food of cattle, AND the most efficient and economical.
2/Tropical grasses e.g.Hybrid Napier are capable of very high yields....YEAR ROUND. They outyield grain crops by a factor of 10X (DM)
3/Grass crops improve soil structure and fertility, and should be included in crop rotations with grains.
4/Continuous grain cropping leads to damaged soils and decreasing yields.
5/Buying in feeds does not save land....it merely uses someone else's land!
6/Feeding cattle out of a bag is an expensive option. Far better to produce fodder locally, even to buy it in!
7/A modern development to supplement fodder production in drought situations is Hydroponic Barley Grass. This produces reliable high yields from a small area, continuously, but requires a modest electric supply, and some capital investment. It is however highly digestible and highly cost efficient.

Dear Mr.Joe, Please contact me

Dear Sir,
Fodder is cultivated abd fed to cattle where land is available to spare. In eveloping countries particularly in India owing to population pressure no land could be spared for fodder cultivation. Therefore the fodder deg model of dairyinh is not acceptable. The nodel tried and lifted the country to the top in milk production was feeding crop residues and agro-industrial byproducts.

I wish to disagree with you that fodder is not an essential food for cattle. The nutritional requirements are s[ecofied as protien, fat, fibre (ADF
I have no objection if one can afford too spare land for fodder cultivation.

Dr.John

Hydroponics Fodder is considered a very expensive alternative in India. But more dedicated R&D in designs of hydroponics systems to match the local ambient temperatures, utilization of naturally available full sunshine in place of grow lights and finding ways alternative energy cooling can certainly of great help in this direction to supplement the requirements of forage.