Low cost feed formulations critical for smallholder farmers

THIS week we want to discuss the concept of feed preparedness. I know that trying to discuss the issue of the need for farmers to be prepared as it relates to feed for their animals after a season that was characterised by above normal rains may be misconstrued as misplaced. It is almost akin to discussing the menu of the next meal on a full stomach.

It is my submission that although we have better pastures in most areas this year due to good rains received, these may not be adequate to pull through the dry season for most smallholder farmers due to three main reasons.

The first reason is that most if not all of our communal areas have no proper grazing management practices that are put in place and as such grazing is haphazard. This type of uncontrolled grazing results in the veld being depleted faster than it should.

Secondly, some communal areas are simply over stocked and hence the livestock densities in those areas cannot be sustained by the available veld regardless of how good the rainy season could have been.

Thirdly, most communal farmers do not have the culture of collecting and properly preserving cereal stover and crop residues from the fields.

In the majority of areas the stover is left in the fields and is recklessly wasted by the animals.

There are few areas that I have encountered that religiously collect and properly preserve stover from the fields for use during the lean season.

One such area is the Cross Roads area in Silobela. This could be because the area is very constrained in terms of grazing space and they know for a fact that they will always need the stover during the lean season.

It is my submission therefore that smallholder farmers need to collect and preserve stover and crop residues from their fields and these supported with low cost feed formulations so that they can supplement their animals during the dry season.

Low cost feed formulations should comprise one of the priority extension messages during this time of the year going into the dry season.

It is important to note that having supplementary feed even as basic as cereal stover can help to reduce deterioration of body condition for animals during the dry season.

Animals will not need to expend too much energy scouting the dry and empty veld for feed.

This means energy reserves in animals are conserved and they do not lose condition faster than they should.

Also collecting stover in itself is not enough but also proper feeding methods are important for example constructing a simple hay rack for feeding stover to your animals can reduce wastage of the stover by close to 65 percent.

Stover if fed from hay racks cannot be trampled on by animals and hence it is prevented from contamination by urine from animals.

This means most of the stover presented to animals will be actually consumed by animals as opposed to just throwing stover on the ground for animals to feed as they quickly trample and urinate on the stover and abandon it thereafter.

Our technical personnel on the ground should therefore assist smallholder farmers with skills to stock feed for use during the dry season.

This can include hay, cereal stover, other crop residues such as groundnut and cow peas stover, and nutritious tree pods like those from acacia trees if the area has such trees.

After collection of such stover, smallholder farmers can then be assisted in low cost beneficiation of their stover using such technologies as urea treatment or merely mixing with molasses.

Technical personnel on the ground has to demonstrate to farmers that they can use their crop residues to support their animals producing tremendous results and farmers will adopt the practice.

It is important to note that a good year like this one actually may have serious implications in overstocked areas during the dry season. This is because most animals will be in calf during the dry season because the breeding season is extended by sustained body condition due to good pastures as a result of heavy rains. Now when you get to the peak of the dry season and your in calfing cows are in the third trimester and you are unable to supplement, you may lose both the cow and the calf. Uyabonga umntakaMaKhumalo.