Feeds and feeding of livestock in Bangladesh: performance, constraints and options forward

Abstract

Fibrous feeds mostly of crop residues, green grasses, and tree foliages and leaves support bulk diets of farm animals being raised mostly by smallholders. The roughage DM produced (51056 million kg) surpasses its demand (49200 million Kg) by 3.77%, but losses and otherwise uses result in production deficit of 44.5%. An average 56.2% deficit of roughage DM and 80.0% of concentrate DM results in a very poor plane of nutrition for farm animals. It supports an average diet containing 6.75 MJME/Kg DM and 1.63% DCP with the feed produced or 7.74 MJME/Kg DM and 2.32% DCP with the feed available, while a miserly calculation demands an average diet of at least 6.50 MJME/ Kg DM and 4.50% DCP.Brans and oilcakes sharing the bulk amount of concentrate feeds, except cereal maize being produced recently, often limit options for formulation of diets of higher metabolizability and quality protein including balancing of micronutrients essential for supporting nutritional planes for high yielding animals.Annual biomass demand and supply mismatch, harvest loss, bulk transfer problem, and otherwise uses of fibrous residues further limit feed supply to animals irrespective of their quality. Commercial poultry, on the other hand, is largely based on imported feeds except a part of corn. Different form of premixes, steroids, antibiotics and enzymes with or without knowing their quality and residual impacts on human health also used for poultry and bovine animals posing threats to food safety sometimes. The present poor plane of nutrition is not conducive to support an increased production of local or crossbred animals.Diversification and production of quality feeds and fodders, synchronization of feed production and availability to animals, strengthening feed milling capacity, conservation and improvement of new pasturage systems, mitigation of climate change impacts and domestic protection to feed safety and quality feed import are some of the options forward to increased supply of feeds and fodders help increased production and productivity of farm animals in the country.

Effect of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Fertilizer on Yield and Nutritional Quality of Jumbo Grass (Sorghum Grass x Sudan Grass)

“…Since the high production cost occurs primarily due to shortage of feeds and fodder and seasonal fluctuation in the supply of quality green fodder, the farmers are advised for growing high yielding fodders in their field for feeding animals. The total production of green roughage in Bangladesh is 51.16 million tons DM against the requirements of 73.8 million tons DM (Huque et al, 2014). As the result, the shortage of green fodder can be overcome by cultivated some potential high yielding fodder like Napier, Para, German, Maize, Oat, Jower and Cowpea following scientific methods and appropriate technology.…”

Feeds and fodder dynamics in selected river basins of Bangladesh

“…According to a published report the average availability of green grass is only 2.5 kg/h/day (Sarker et al, 2016). The demand and supply gaps of feeds and fodders (Huque and Sarker, 2014) and seasonal and regional variations in biomass availability (Huque and Sarker 2014) often limit ruminant production and productivity in many developing countries including Bangladesh. The nutritive values of the local indigenous grasses were reported earlier by Amin and Alam (1991) and Islam and Alam (1996).In Bangladesh, plenty of information on seasonal feeds and fodder dynamics are very scanty.…”

Biomass and nutritional evaluation of German grass (Echinochloa polystachya) cultivated on floating bed

“…After paying the cost of bamboo, net and rope, a floating bed of 200 sqft required 850.00 tk. Finally, German grass production cost on floating bed was near about 2.3 tk/kg which was lower than the cost reported by Huque and Sarker (2014) for Napier (3 tk/kg) or maize (2.4 tk/kg) cultivated on land. Usually floating bed does not require any additional supplement like fertilizer or irrigation (Islam and Atkins, 2007).…”

“…Livestock provides meat and milk, thus plays an important role in human health and nutrition (Chawdhury et al, 2016). The demand for meat and milk in the country are increasing by time (Huque and Sarker, 2014). Scarcity of green fodder is one of the major constrains of dairy farming in Bangladesh (Khan et al, 2009;Roy et al, 2012).…”