Closing the winter feed gap using indigenous feed resources: Is it possible

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Closing the winter feed gap using indigenous feed
resourcesIs it possible?

• Euan Thomson (Independent Livestock Production
  Consultant), Edinburgh, UK
• (Affiliated with Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen, UK
  and Mercy Corps, Kabul)

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Outline of presentation

• Winter feeding as a bottleneck
• Sources of additional winter feed
• Recommended approaches
• Higher biomass production on rangeland
• Treating straw with urea
• Growing more feed crops
• Intercropping fruit/nut trees with forage crops
• Conclusions

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Winter feeding significant because

• At start of winter ewes are mated
• Good fertility is essential for good weaning rate
• Ewes well nourished during pregnancy bear strong
  lambs and have stored body tissue
• Survival rate in heavier lambs higher
• Ewes well nourished during pregnancy produce more
  milk which results in higher lamb gains

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Lactation (milking)
Lambing
Foetus placenta body tissue
Mating
Maintenance needs and wool growth Autumn
Winter Spring
Summer
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Where does the feed come from?

• Rangelands 60 90
• Cereal straw 20 40
• Legume hays 3 10
• Legume crops 1 3
• Agro-industrial by-products
• Oilseed cakes 3 5
• Imported feeds ??, mostly for poultry

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What is the
contribution of rangeland? Very difficult to
estimate since many assumptions have to be made

• Area of rangeland, 29, 54 M ha or what?
• Biomass production 350 or 700 kg DM/ha?
• Utilization rate 10, 50 or 75 or what?
• Animal population How precise are the numbers?
• What is annual dry matter intake of an animal?
• What number of animals still move to Pakistan?
• A national feed deficit of 25 can be estimated
• So why arent more animals dead?!!

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Cereal crops Straws

• Straws (wheat, barley, rice) and stovers (maize)
  possibly 5,000,000 tons produced annually
• Problem Straw low in protein. Needs to be
  supplemented with protein and energy

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Cereal crops grains and bran

• Grains (barley, maize) Area too small to result
  in much trade between regions.
• Could the area of barley be increased?
• Brans (wheat, rice) Good as supplement but
  amounts limited.

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Afghanistan is short of protein for livestock
Feed legume crops?

• Many feed legumes already grown Examples
  alfalfa, Persian clover, peas, vetches (of
  different species?).
• Enough know-how about these species, move quickly
  into seed multiplication and distribution? FAO
  worked for years on testing forages!!!
• What about new species? Sainfoin (rainfed),
  non-legume shrubs such as saltbushes in saline
  areas.
• Can the area be increased or does this mean
  displacing other staple crops?

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Afghanistan is short of protein for livestock
What about oilseed cakes

• Cottonseed cake
• 60,000 ha cotton grown 1997-99
• Cottonseed cake production enough to feed about
  10 of sheep for four months in winter
• Area of cotton might increase in the future
• Consider importing cottonseed cake (Uzbekistan,
  Pakistan)
• Other oil-seed crops
• Linseed (flax) ca. 40,000 ha
• Sesame ca. 35,000 ha
• Sunflower ca. 12,000 ha
• Safflower ca ??? ha

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Other solutions to the protein shortage?

• Seriously consider testing urea-treated straw
  (UTS)?
• Response still better if add cottonseed cake and
  fermentable energy as well
• Urea made in Afghanistan
• Technically simple, difficult to achieve adoption
• Support private sector to produce UTS
• Needs quality control to prevent abuse

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Treating chopped straw with urea solution
Source ICARDA/MM/IFAD
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Other feed supplements Feed blocks

• Feed blocks based on cheap agro-industrial
  by-products
• Need plentiful source of cheap by-products
• Include urea to provide nitrogen
• Often include molasses. Costly to transport
• Can add minerals
• Quality control important
• Need to be made by private sector
• Not recommended at the moment

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Increasing energy and protein supply using
barley The case of the Syrian steppe

• Government started subsiding feeds (barley, CSC,
  bran) as result of severe drought 1959-61
• Bedouin realised supplements benefited sheep and
  purchased supplements on black market
• Sheep numbers soared
• Started cultivating pristine steppe to grow
  barley
• Destroyed large areas of steppe
• Government enforced ban on barley growing in 1996
• Sheep numbers stabilised, even decreased

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Benefits / risks of barley cultivation in rainfed
areas

• Could substantially increase supply of high
  energy grains in areas with 200 250 mm or less
  rainfall if grown in areas where moisture
  collects
• Could quickly identify barley adapted to these
  areas ICARDA has material
• Risk of environmental degradation if plough best
  rangelands
• Need to ensure that barley not grown outside
  designated areas
• Risk that barley growers claim land from others

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Back to rangelands. Points for discussion

• Rangelands are the most important feed resource
  Is attempting to defining carrying capacity a
  futile exercise that should be abandoned?
• Rangelands - a resilient resource. Is
  degradation happening? Is the process
  reversible? If so, how can it be done?
• Difficult to quantify contribution of rangelands.
  Should we bother to measure it? Are there tools
  available to do it (NDVI)? Are they precise
  enough?
• Difficult to improve productivity of rangelands.
  What options are there national or local?
• Have Early Warning Systems a role to play in
  managing range-based production systems?

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Conclusions

• Winter period is the main feed gap that needs to
  be closed in order to improve livestock output
• Limited options do exist to increase indigenous
  feed production to fill the feed gap
• Increasing biomass production on rangeland is
  theoretically possible but may be an unattainable
  goal on a wide scale!
• Make better use of straw by treating with urea
• Barley could be cultivated in designated areas in
  regions with 200 250 mm rainfall
• Intercropping of fruit/nut trees with forage
  crops?