Leucaena leucocephala leaf meal as supplement to diet of grazing dairy cattle in semiarid Western Tanzania

The effect of supplementation with three levels of Leucaena leucocephala leaf meal (LLM) added to a diet composed of cotton seed hulls (CSH) and maize bran (MB) on milk yield, milk composition and body weight changes of grazing lactating cows was studied in a completely randomised design. Marginal product analysis for the different levels of LLM as a substitute to cotton seed cake (CSC) was also calculated. The following treatment diets were used in the experiment: Diet 1, (control) composed of 1.8 kg DM CSH and 1.8 kg DM MB. Diet 2, 3 and 4 had an addition of 1.2, 2.0 and 2.6 kg DM of LLM respectively. Diet 5 was composed of 1.8 kg DM of CSC and 1.8 kg DM of MB. Treatments, number of lactations, farm and initial milk yields significantly (P 0.05). Cows on treatment 1 achieved no significant (P 0.05) difference in net milk produced by cows on treatment 2, 3 and 5 compared to treatment 1. LLM supplementation significantly (P 0.05) influence on milk crude protein (CP), butter fat (BF), solids not fat (SNF) and ash in all the diets. Body weight was significantly (P < 0.05) increased by LLM supplementation. Degradation coefficients of the treatment diets were high and varied significantly (P < 0.01) and had an influence on the metabolizable energy value of the treatment diets. Cows on diet 2 to 4 had a weight gain of 190.9, 101.8 and 80.9 g/cow/day respectively and cows on diet 5 attained the highest weight gain (234.5 g/cow/day). Diet 4 had the highest marginal productivity of 4.3 followed by diets 2, 3 and 1 with marginal productivities of 2.8, 0.6 and 0 respectively. It was therefore, concluded that the optimal supplementation level using LLM as a substitute for the more expensive CSC was diet 4.

Meat and milk production scenarios and the associated land footprint in Kenya

Increasing demands for meat and milk in developing countries and the associated production growth are driving the expansion of agriculture at the expense of environmental conservation and other land uses. While considerable attention has been directed at improving crop yields to alleviate the pressure on land, there has been far less attention on the implications of the expected intensification of livestock production. Here, we present and analyse the land availability and land footprints of livestock intensification for five scenarios representing various degrees of intensification of meat and milk production by cattle, sheep, goats and camels in arid, semi-arid and humid production systems in Kenya. The first three scenarios are defined by increasing levels of input and management, ranging from low (scenario S1), intermediate (S2) to high (S3) input feed crop cultivation and livestock production. Reference scenario S1 has production practices and output of meat and milk similar to current production practices. In scenarios S2 and S3, the total land used for livestock production remains the same as in S1. Two additional scenarios, S4 and S5, explore opportunities for lessening environmental pressure through reduction of the land footprint of meat and milk production. For each scenario, we quantify the potential availability of grassland and cropland for meat and milk production by cattle, sheep, goats and camel in the arid, semi-arid and humid production systems. A resource use indicator, land footprint (ha), is used to assess changes in land use associated with livestock production. We estimate that the potential increase in production due to intensification from scenario S1 to S2 is 51% for milk and 71% for meat. The potential increase due to improving production from scenario S1 to S3 is 80% for milk and 113% for meat. The area of grazing land, as a percentage of the total potentially available grazing land, decreases from 10% to 6% as productivity increases from scenario S1 to S5. Cropland usage increases from 4% in scenario S1 to 11% in scenario S5. Reduced land demand in scenarios S4 and S5 indicates the possibility that intensification may help reduce the pressure on land and hence promote environmental conservation. Overall, the results suggest that it is possible to increase production to meet increasing demands for meat and milk while also gaining land for environmental conservation through intensification. Realizing the potential presented by the intensification scenarios will be contingent upon successfully establishing and operationalizing enabling policies, institutional arrangements and markets and ensuring that relevant information, services, inputs, and other essential requirements are available, accessible and affordable to herders and farmers. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.

Price or relational behaviors? Supplier relationship management in the German dairy industry

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to determine the relative importance of actual price and behavioural factors for the quality of the business relationship between German dairies and their milk suppliers. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reports the results of field study involving 209 farmers in Lower Saxony and the northern section of North Rhine-Westphalia regions in northwest Germany. These regions are the most important milk production centres in Germany. Findings – The results indicate that, whereas behavioural factors, specifically relationship management practices and price satisfaction, have a positive influence on the quality of the business relationship between the farmers and the dairies, the actual price levels have no influence. Practical implications – Actual prices paid to the farmers is not the most important factor which influences the quality of their relationship with the dairies but rather behavioural norms such as milk price satisfaction and relational norms. Dairies are advised to enhance price perception through price negotiations and transparency in order to facilitate quality relationship instead of through higher price payment alone. Originality/value – This study is the first to integrate and compare the actual prices and behavioural variables to determine their relative importance and influence on relationship quality

Trends and spatial variation in water and land footprints of meat and milk production systems in Kenya

Global consumption of livestock products is increasing steadily due to human population growth, poverty reduction and dietary changes raising the demand for already scarce freshwater and land resources. Here, we analyze the changes associated with direct and indirect use of freshwater and land for meat and milk production in three production systems in Kenya between the 1980s and 2000s. We use two resource use indicators, the water footprint (m3/year) and land footprint (ha), to assess changes in freshwater and land use for cattle, goats, sheep and camels in arid, semi-arid and humid production systems. We estimate actual water and land use using Kenya-wide data for yields, feed composition and feed conversion efficiencies. Our results show that the amounts of freshwater and land resources used for production are determined mainly by production volumes and feed conversion efficiencies. Total water and land footprints of milk production increased for goats, sheep and camels but decreased by half for cattle in arid and semi-arid production systems, in correspondence with similar changes in the total numbers of each livestock species. Green water and grazing land footprints dominated in all production systems due to the predominance of indirect use of water to support forage production. The per unit meat footprint for cattle increased significantly between the 1980s and 2000s in all production systems, due to adverse trends in feed conversion efficiency, while changes in the water and land footprints of other animal products were small, due to modest changes in all influencing factors. In contrast, national average footprints per unit of beef and milk show a modest decrease due to a relative shift of production to the more resource-efficient humid production system. Given the potential increase in demand for livestock products and limited freshwater and land availability, feed conversion efficiencies should be improved by rehabilitating degraded rangelands, adopting improved breeds and using appropriate feed composition.

Amla (Phyllanthus emblica) fresh fruit as new feed source to enhance ruminal fermentation and milk production in lactating dairy cows

This study sought to determine the effect of feeding three levels of the novel feedstuff fresh Phyllanthus emblica (amla) fruit on nutrient digestibility, fermentation parameters, and milk production of lactating dairy cows. Eight ruminally cannulated mid-lactation dairy cows were randomly assigned to two treatment groups in a repeated crossover design. There was a 14-d adaptation phase followed by the start of period 1. In this period, the first group of 4 cows received the control diet, whereas the other group was supplemented with FAF at increasing levels (200, 400, 600 g/d), sequentially, at 14-d intervals. Each period consisted of a cow as the main plot, with three different amla doses representing subplots. In period 2, the control and supplemented groups were exchanged. For each sub-period, the first ten days were adjusted for diet adaptation, and the last four days were assigned to sample milk, feed, rumen, and feces. Supplementation of FAF had no effect (P = 0.92) on feed intake. While, the lowest (P < 0.01) rumen protozoa count was recorded at 400 g/d FAF dose compared to other groups. However, total VFA concentrations varied in a quadratic manner (P = 0.04) with increasing FAF doses. The molar proportion of acetate (P = 0.01) and propionate (P < 0.01) were altered (cubic effect). The effects of FAF supplementation on NH3-N concentration (P < 0.001) were dose-dependent, with the concentration decreasing by 54.9% at 200 g/d and increasing by 29.8% at 600 g/d when compared to controls. There was a quadratic effect of FAF on milk yield (P = 0.02), with the 200 and 400 g/d groups producing higher milk yields than the 600 g/d groups. The inclusion of 400 g/d FAF in the diet led to greater milk protein yield (P < 0.01) and milk nitrogen efficiency (P < 0.01) compared to cows fed 200 g/d FAF. Moreover, the concentration of milk urea nitrogen (MUN) was reduced (P < 0.001) with 200 or 400 g/d FAF supplementation compared with control or 600 g/d FAF. When cows were supplemented with a 400 g/d FAF dose, both ruminal protozoa counts and MUN were reduced, but milk protein and nitrogen efficiency were increased with no reduction in milk production. These results suggest that FAF can be used as an alternative natural feed source up to 400 g/d on an as-fed basis, but beyond that there may have anti-nutritional factors that limit the levels of amla supplementation. © 2021 The Authors

Assessment of veterinary antibiotics from animal manure-amended soil to growing alfalfa, alfalfa silage, and milk

Using animal manure as organic fertilizer to grow fodder crops is causing public health concerns because animal manure is the major reservoir of veterinary antibiotics. In this study, we used a mathematical model to estimate the risk of human exposure to veterinary antibiotics when using swine manure as organic fertilizer to grow alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.). Alfalfa was planted in a greenhouse and fertilized with swine manure spiked with oxytetracycline (OTC, at 0, 150, and 1500 mg/kg of manure), ofloxacin (OFL, at 0, 15, and 150 mg/kg), or sulfamonomethoxine (SMM, at 0, 5, 15 and 150 mg/kg). Alfalfa was harvested at the budding stage and ensiled for 60 days. Results showed that OTC and OFL could be detected in the alfalfa root, stem, and leaf with a concentration ranging from 8.85 to 59.17 μg OTC /kg and from 1.50 to 4.10 μg OFL/kg dry matter, but SMM could only be detected in the root ranging from 29.10 to 63.75 μg/kg dry matter. The ensiling for 60 days decreased the OFL concentration by 68.7% but only slightly decreased the OTC concentration. The maximum daily exposures of humans to OTC and OFL through liquid milk consumption were estimated to be 5.84E-8 and 1.63E-8 μg, respectively, both of which are well below the intake levels of OTC (72 μg) and OFL (54 μg) mandated by the European Union. The results of the present study indicate that using swine manure as organic fertilizer to grow alfalfa poses a limited risk for human exposure to veterinary antibiotics through the consumption of liquid milk. © 2021

Corn silage quality index: An index combining milk yield, silage nutritional and fermentation parameters

Development of indexes based on milk yield of lactating dairy cows fed corn silage-based diets combined with silage quality parameters can provide clear guidance to assess the overall quality of corn silage produced. This study was done to determine the most important minimum number of silage quality parameters for corn silage quality evaluation among commonly used parameters for nutritional and fermentation quality and to develop an integrated corn silage quality index (CSQI) using standard scoring functions and weighting assignment. Principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple regression analysis (MRA) were used to select the most important silage quality parameters and to assign parameter weights, whereas standard scoring functions were used to normalize silage quality parameters. A variety of corn silage samples (n = 390) representing spatial and seasonal heterogeneity, were collected from 195 intensive dairy farms in China and analyzed for 16 frequently used chemical and fermentation parameters. Concurrent with silage sampling, average daily milk yield respective to each silage was collected from 50 mid-lactating dairy cows fed corn silage-based diets (i.e., 39–48 % DM corn silage in TMR) and used as the dependent variable in MRA. The silage quality parameters used in developing the index were; digestible NDF after 30-h in vitro incubation (g/kg NDF), and concentrations (DM basis) of starch, crude protein, ether extract, ammonia, and lactic acid. The CSQI was developed by summing normalized and weighted quality parameters. The CSQI was subsequently converted to corn silage quality scores (CSQS, 0–100). Based on the CSQS, silages were grouped into five quality grades; poor, fair, average, good and excellent having grade mean index score of 51, 62, 69, 78 and 89. The new indexes were evaluated against observed daily milk yield measurements and Milk2006 milk yield estimates. The CSQS were found to be positively correlated with observed daily milk yield measurements and Milk2006 index. The linear relationship between MRA based CSQS and observed daily milk yield measurement was higher than that of the relationship between PCA based CSQS and Milk2006 index (R2 = 0.72 vs. 0.60). Further, accuracy and precision of predicting milk yield by MRA based CSQI were higher than those of the PCA based CSQI against both observed daily milk yield measurements and Milk2006 index based on corn silage quality. Thus, among the two multivariate approaches, the MRA based CSQI method was a more accurate method for predicting performance between corn silage of different qualities. © 2021 Elsevier B.V.

Estimation of between-cow variability in nutrient digestion of lactating dairy cows fed corn-based diets

The objective of this study was to estimate cow variability that can be used to determine the optimal sample size for digestibility trials using lactating dairy cows. Experimental design was randomized complete block design having three blocks and three dietary treatments. Three similarly managed nearby intensive farms were considered as blocks, and three diets were formulated to have 0.7, 1.0, and 1.3 neutral detergent fiber (NDF): starch ratio. In each farm, 18 cows were assigned for each dietary treatment and five sample sizes per each treatment group were simulated by simple random sampling of data from18,15, 12, 9 and 6 cows respectively. Intake was not affected by diet or sample size (p > 0.05). Estimated cow variability (as standard deviation) for digestibility of dry matter, NDF and starch were 3.8 g/kg, 5.1 g/kg and 3.3 g/kg, respectively. A major implication of this study is that cow variability is greatest for NDF digestibility and the use of a minimum of 12 cows per dietary treatment is adequate to reliably detect treatment effects on the digestibility of NDF, starch and dry matter using cows fed in groups with randomized block design under these experimental conditions. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

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