There are thirty yak herd owners, all men and mainly Thakalis, between Jomsom and Lete in Lower Mustang. Transhumance is used in herding yaks, which migrate seasonally between winter pastures at about 3,000-4,000 metres and summer pastures at about 4,000-5,000 metres above sea level. Absentee herd ownership, in which shepherds (usually members of a non-Thakali ethnic group) herd only yaks and do not own any animals themselves, is common. Yaks are raised primarily for meat and milk, though substantial income is realized from selling blood during two blood-drinking ceremonies and from selling yaks as pack animals. Milk is used for products such as butter/ghee and a dry, hard curd cheese (chhurpi), which are mainly sold but also used for home consumption and for making 'salty butter tea'.Yak wool has little commercial value today but is used to make rope and tents. Yak owner estimations of how much of their income is derived from their herds range widely between 10 percent and 90 percent, but average about 50 percent. Additional income is made from the sale of seasonal crops, in particular apples, potatoes, maize, millet and barley that are produced on the owners' land. Owners also raise chickens, cows, buffalo, oxen, horses and goats. Two of the herd owners owned hotels that were run by their families. In this study, annual earnings from yaks totalled approximately Nepalese Rupees (N.Rs) 72,780 and total income for the herd owner was about N.Rs 145,560 (U.S. $2,079).We concluded that for these herd owners, yak raising is not a subsistence economic activity but rather part of a market economy based on speculative investments and accumulation. Moreover, yak production is a very high-risk enterprise as disasters can decimate large proportions of a herd quickly.
More than 50% of Nepal's population lives in the hill regions, usually with small land holdings, and over 60% are considered below the poverty line. Livestock, and particularly goats, provide these small-scale farmers with about 55% of their on-farm income. We studied goat production in Katteldanda, a mid-hill village of 78 households, mainly Brahmins, in Ghorka District. Subsistence farmers raise six or seven goats and one or two buffalo, and cultivate mainly maize, millet and rice. Tree fodder constituted about 70% of dry matter intake of goats for large parts of the year and was collected by lopping branches from trees on upland, rain-watered, private terraces (bari) near the household compound. Local farmers ranked the fodder trees they considered best and we measured the actual fodder they offered to goats. In addition, we evaluated and ranked 23 fodder species on the basis of laboratory in vitro nutritional and metabolizable energy yields. Using a Mantel test, a significant correlation was found between what the farmers thought was best fodder and fodder offered to goats (Mantel r=0.398; P= 0.037) but non-significant correlations were found between either what the farmers thought was best fodder or fodder offered to goats and laboratory rankings (Mantel r=−0.027; P=0.49 and Mantel r=0.187; P=0.18, respectively). We concluded that biomass produced and availability throughout the year, in addition to nutritional and energy yield, are important criteria for selecting fodder trees for goat production.
An experiment was conducted for 90 days to determine the effect of energy level using different levels of RB on the UTRS as a basal diet supplemented with fixed level of Leucaena on growing goats. Experimental diets included four levels of rice bran: 0% rice bran (RB), 10% RB, 20% RB, and 30% RB in basal diets. A total of 20 growing female goats of 5 to 6 months age were randomly allocated into four different dietary groups. Findings showed that inclusion of 20 % rice bran significantly (P<0.05) improved in total DMI than the other levels. A 30 % RB inclusion was not able to improve further the total DMI, which might be due to the negative effect of higher level of anti-nutritional factor in rice bran. In-situ degradation of D 3 and D 4 recorded the higher estimated solid outflow rate indicating on the improvement on digestion of feedstuffs. The 20 and 30% RB inclusion resulted to significantly (p<0.05) higher OM digestibility of UTRS-based diet with Leucaena supplementation. ADG (41.1g), FCE (10.96) and benefit over feed cost Philippino Peso 238.2) was significantly higher in diet groups with 20 % RB inclusion. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the supplementation of rice bran at 20 % level is economic net income (US$ 2.040 /goat) in feeding goats with UTRS based diet and supplemented with 20 % of Leucaena.
Five different types of feeders were designed and tested on goats to find out their effectiveness in reducing feed wastage and cost fabrication. Experiment was conducted at Agriculture Research Station (ARS)-Bandipur for two years. Tested feeders were hexagonal, rectangular, hay rack, chain barrel and conventional wooden Tatnu. Feeders were fabricated using iron bars and woods. They were tested with the adult goats for feed wastage and feed contamination. Experimental feeds were fodders twigs (Tanki), forage (Stylo, Napier), crop residue (straw from black bean) and commercial concentrate. Chain barrel type of feeder was also tested at farmer's field at Baradi. Rectangular feeders have significantly lower (P<0.01) feed wastage (6.61% for fodders) compared to other tested feeders. The fabrication cost was NRs 3200, 1700, 700, 900, and 150 for hexagonal, rectangular; hay rack, chain barrel and conventional wooden Tatnu respectively. The rectangular feeder is suitable for goats feeding in Tarai and in the hills of Nepal. It has provision for feeding fodders, grasses, crop residues and concentrates together at the same time. Chain barrel type had comparatively higher wastage (10.7% for fodder) than the rectangular but was preferred by the farmers due to its low fabricating cost, portable in size, small space required and easy to handle. Therefore, the rectangular feeder is recommended for middle level farmers and chain barrel for small farmers who rear few goats.
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