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Introduction
The feed given to animals usually comprises one or two locally available concentrate feed
ingredients, grasses and crop residues. This leads to imbalanced feeding which means that
proteins, energy, minerals and vitamins in the ration are either more or less. While imbalanced
feeding adversely affects the health and productivity of animals in various ways, it also reduces
the net daily income to milk producers from dairying because the potential of milk production
of animals is not fully exploited. At times, when the animals are overfed, this can also raise the
cost of milk production.
Therefore, milk producers need to understand the implications of imbalanced feeding and
recognise the importance of giving their animals balanced ration.
Disadvantages of imbalanced feeding
• Low milk production, poor growth and reproduction
• Milk production of animals lower than their genetic potential
• Shorter lactation length and increased inter-calving period
• Animals more prone to metabolic diseases such as milk fever and ketosis
• Slow growth of young animals delaying the age of first calving
• Low productivity and shorter duration of productive life
What is ration balancing?
All species require balanced ration for optimal growth. Ration balancing is the process to balance
the level of various nutrients of an animal, from the available feed resources, to meet its
nutrient requirements for maintenance and production.
Types of dietary feed ingredients
•
Compound cattle feed
: This is considered to be a balanced source of nutrients for growth
and milk production. However, only 10 to 12 per cent of the total feed ingredients are used
to produce compound cattle feed. Compound cattle feed does not always complement the
feed ingredients used by milk producers.
•
Other feeds
: Feed ingredients like rapeseed cake/meal, groundnut cake/meal, sunflower
meal, cottonseed cake/meal, soya bean meal, guar meal, maize gluten, sesame cake,
coconut cake, linseed cake, safflower meal, deoiled rice bran, rice polish, wheat bran, maize
bran, maize grain, sorghum grain, wheat, broken rice, millets and chunnies are fed as such,
depending on availability and cost.
•
Crops residues & grasses
: Wheat straw, paddy straw, sorghum straw, maize stovers,
straw of pearl millet and locally available grasses are fed as basal feed.
•
Green fodder
: Maize, sorghum, oats, hybrid napier bajra, lucerne, cowpea and berseem
are available seasonally and fed in a limited quantity.
•
Mineral mixture
: This is a source of macro and micro minerals, usually lacking in the
animal’s ration.