FEEDS AND FEEDING OF DAIRY ANIMALS
FEEDS AND FEEDING OF DAIRY ANIMALS
A dairy animal requires good nutrition for maintenance, growth, production and reproduction. A dairy feed must comprise of carbohydrates, proteins, minerals and water to achieve productivity.
- Carbohydrates: energy giving feed
- Proteins: Body building
- Minerals: These are indispensable part of the nutrition of a dairy cow. For animals to have high productivity, they need mineral supplementation
- Water: Water is an integral part for high milk production in dairy cow. The amount of water required at different physiological stages varies and therefore provide water as much as the animal can takes (80 to 100 litres per day); For a lactating cow the rule of thumb is 5 litres of water for each litre of milk produced.
There are two types of feeds for dairy animals namely roughages and concentrates.
- Roughages
- They include all leafy material used by ruminant animals. There are green and dry roughages such as maize stalks, grasses, legumes. Provision of enough and sufficient quantity and quality roughages is the basis for high milk production. These are bulky and cheap feed sources.
- Farmers are encouraged to plant grasses and legumes that are most nutritious source of feed e.g. Napier grass, silver leaf, Leucaena.
- Farmers should be encouraged to preserve feeds in form of hay and silage
- Farmers and communities should be encouraged to harvest rain water in their homesteads.
- For regrowth and productivity of forage in the grazing areas, farmers are encouraged to practice rotating grazing.
- Concentrates
- These are feeds that contain a lot of carbohydrates and protein. Examples include:- maize bran, maize meal, sorghum meal, brewer’s spent grain, wheat bran, rice bran, soya bean meal.
- Farmers can also buy commercially produced concentrates such as calf meal and dairy mash.
