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Introducing a new technology is a question of creating a new consensus, and it is not enough to demonstrate it to one or two farmers.
At the moment of writing, the treatment of straw using urea as a source of ammonia has been tried in several countries, but it has not been applied on a large scale in very many. However, there are interesting developments in countries such as China, India and the Niger where on- farm application now seems to be moving ahead. In other countries, such as Bangladesh, many attempts have been made but without any great success at the farmer's level.
The following sections attempt to analyse some of the important factors to be considered for the successful implementation of straw treatment.
The availability of straw must be seen from the farmer's perspective. This cannot be expressed too strongly.
It is particularly important to find out whether - from the farmer's viewpoint - straw is plentiful or scarce. It is not enough to do this on a national, regional or village level. The estimate has to be made on the farm.
Factors contributing to the quantity of straw available for feeding include farm size, the present use of straw and possible alternatives, the season, the cropping pattern and the number of animals.
If the price allows it, a farmer may of course consider buying straw from farmers or regions with a surplus.
Straw can be used as fuel, building or roofing material, as a mulch to contain soil moisture for other crops or it can be dumped in the compost pit. It may also be wasted in the field, for instance during rainy weather.
If straw is used for purposes other than feed, its quantity may not be increased very easily in the short term. The provision of alternative fuel sources may take time if it involves planting trees. The same can be said of other options such as building and roofing materials.
However, if there is a risk of wastage as a result of rain, the urea ammoniation technique can be used to preserve the wet straw. The procedure is the same as the one already described for treatment, with the difference that water may not need to be added because the straw is already wet. What is important is to keep the ammoniated straw in a relatively airtight condition until it is fed out or until dry weather conditions allow the straw to dry.
The seasonal dimensions of feeding deserve more attention than they have had so far. The objective is clearly to avoid big fluctuations in animal liveweight or milk production, as this can lead to a waste of feed and loss of income for farmers. While much more research is needed in this respect, some general comments can be made. Many factors must be considered to allocate a farm's feed resources efficiently over a year. Regarding the animals, factors such as calving, ploughing and fattening seasons must be considered. Fattening may be for the market or for a religious festival. However, these seasons may not coincide with the time of generous feed supply so some planning may be worthwhile.
If there is a good market for milk, it pays to conserve straw to ensure that enough is at hand to feed cows well after calving.
A working animal should be in a good condition, but not excessively fat, when cultivation starts. Ad lib feeding of treated straw may therefore not be required, but a supplement of it will help. In Thailand, experience has shown that, in the four- month dry season, feeding working animals a small, fixed amount in the morning before grazing leads to improved work and a higher safes' price when the cultivation season is over.
Annual feed calendar
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Feed item |
Month | ||||||||||||
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J |
F |
M |
A |
M |
J |
J |
A |
S |
O |
N |
D | |
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Oilseed cake |
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Bran | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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Leaves | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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Weeds | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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Legumes | |
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Wheat straw |
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Millet straw |
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Sorghum straw |
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Rice straw | |
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Grazing | |
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- stubble | |
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- commons | |
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- bunds | |
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Other | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Note: In many situations the treatment of straw will be relevant in particular seasons but not throughout the year. There may be times when there is an abundance of other feeds to use. The above teed calendar is included to help the extension worker establish an overview of the annual feed situation. Such an overview is important because treated straw cannot be ted From one day to the next. The treatment time is approximately three weeks depending on the climate In a particular place. By marking an "X" against a feed item and month, the extension worker can use this calendar to establish a picture of the annual feed situation and plan straw treatment well in time.
Feed production on a farm where the treated straw or straw excess feeding systems are applied will follow the farm's cropping pattern very closely.
Harvest
In normal years, after harvest there will be an abundance of straw. However, it is important to find out whether this is also the right time to feed in excess. Perhaps the stubble remaining in the field can be grazed, making it more important to wait until the rains start to feed the harvested straw. At that time, fields may not be available for grazing for two reasons: with the early rains, farmers may start to plough or the fields may be flooded. In either case, stored straw becomes important as a feed for the animals.
With a very high cropping intensity - which is often the case in irrigated areas - there may not be any land at all for grazing and straw may have to be used as the main feed throughout the year. At other times, residues from weeding or other crops such as sugar cane may be available.
Correct supplementation is of great importance for obtaining the full benefits from feeding straw, whether the excess feeding or the treatment approach is applied. This point tends to be neglected while too much importance is given to the effect of treatment per se or - with the excess feeding approach - getting the animals to eat more straw.
This is wrong. Oilseed cakes or oil- meals from seed cotton, soybean or sesame, for instance, are good supplements. Cereal brans and polishings may also be used. They should be used together with a supplement of green fodder, preferably from legumes. Grain from rice, wheat, barley or maize is not a good supplement and should only be fed in very limited quantities. The oilseed cakes will help the animal make better use of the straw but, as a rule of thumb, if oilseed cakes or grain constitute more than one- fifth of the total feed, the animal will tend to make inefficient use of the straw.
Data from an experiment conducted in China illustrate this general principle. The objective was to discover the effect of using cottonseed cake to supplement fattening animals which had access to all the treated straw they could eat.
Supplementing cottonseed cake
Liveweight gain obtained by supplementing different quantities of ammoniated straw with cottonseed cake is shown in the following table.
Liveweight gained with cottonseed cake supplement
Feed consumed
|
Cottonseed cake supplement |
Ammoniated straw |
Daily liveweight gain |
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0 kg |
6.2 kg |
250 g |
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1 kg |
6.2 kg |
600 g |
|
2 kg |
5.4 kg |
700 g |
|
3 kg |
5.2 kg |
840 g |
|
4 kg |
3.5 kg |
940 g |
It can be seen that there is a very good response to the first 1 kg of cottonseed cake, as the animals increase their daily liveweight gain from 250 to 600 9. As 1 kg of cottonseed cake is less than one- fifth of the total quantity eaten (1 kg of cottonseed cake and 6.2 kg of straw) there is no effect on the quantity of straw consumed, which remains the same at 6.2 kg, with and without cottonseed cake. However, 2 kg of cottonseed cake constitute more than one- fifth of the total diet and the amount of straw eaten is reduced from 6.2 to 5.4 kg, and this tendency continues as the level of cottonseed cake is increased to 3 and 4 kgs. It drops to as little as 3.5 kg of straw with 4 kg cottonseed cake.
It can of course be argued that the animals are increasing their daily weight gain by eating more cottonseed cake. But normally straw is much cheaper than oilseed cake and grains and so it has to be calculated carefully whether, in a particular case, it makes economic sense to go beyond a supplement of 1 or 2 kg. This applies in both the excess feeding and straw treatment approach.
Type of animal
There has to be a good economic reason for a farmer to feed treated straw. Farmers may keep milking, fattening, working or growing animals, a combination of these or one or two animals, which - according to the needs of the farmer - may serve several purposes.
For farmers who are short of cash, the milking animal is the best to start with. The monetary effect of feeding fattening, working and growing animals better will only be felt later and the farmer must have sufficient cash to buy urea and some oilseed cake for supplementary feeding until the animal is sold or the crop harvested.
The milking animal
The effect on milk production can be quick and an increase in milk yield may be seen within the first two weeks, even within a couple of days. Provided there is access to a market, this will mean an immediate increase in cash income, a part of which can be spent on urea.
Other effects will be a longer lactation period and a higher conception rate owing to the animals' better condition.
Farmers in many countries have observed that they can save concentrate by feeding treated straw, without any reduction in milk yield.
As a useful starting point, however, a farmer may supplement 0.25 kg of oilseed cake per litre of milk produced by a cow. This may be reduced by feeding more green fodder. At the village level in India, 8 kg of milk have been obtained with a feed of 10 kg of treated straw, 10 kg of fresh green fodder and 0.5 kg of concentrate.
Treated straw usually covers the requirements of low yielding animals producing less than 3 to 4 kg of milk. For higher- yielding animals, supplementation with oilseed cake, brans and some green fodder will be necessary.
The fattening animal
The younger the fattening animal the more important an additional protein supplement will be. Experience shows that, with ad lib feeding of treated straw and supplements of 1.5 to 2 kg of oilseed cake daily, growth rates of 0.5 to 0.6 kg per day can be obtained under village conditions. This has been the experience in China. In a country with smaller cattle, for example Bangladesh, daily growth rates of 0.2 to 0.3 kg may be adequate.
More or less straw
When fed treated straw ad lib, fattening animals will typically increase their dry matter intake by one- third or more. Milking animals may even double their intake.
Countries or regions which have a scarcity of straw (from the farmer's perspective), such as Bangladesh and the high plateau of Bolivia, may not find such a huge increase in intake feasible.
However, theoretically, the animals should also benefit from treatment even if they are not allowed to eat more. Whether the benefit is enough to justify the investment in urea and other inputs is a question which needs to be decided in each particular case. It is important to remember that ad lib feeding is not appropriate in all situations.
It would be too simple to say that the large- scale adoption of straw treatment will occur to the same extent as extension workers include this technology in their programmes for farmers.
In many countries animal husbandry extension services are weak. When they exist as independent units in government livestock services there is often a scarcity of human resources and transport facilities. Whatever human resources there are may be working on imported, exotic animal species or tend to have a veterinary bias. Some countries have adopted the farming systems approach to extension but livestock extension is normally supervised by agricultural departments whose emphasis is almost invariably on crops.
These problems are mentioned because they are important reasons for the low level of adoption not only of the technologies presented in this booklet but of others as well. They are also mentioned to show that the question is complex and not merely a matter of choosing the right technology. Extension programmes conducted by producer organizations and other non- governmental organizations are interesting possibilities.
For many agencies, a precondition for taking up extension work in animal production would be an exhaustive training of staff in the appropriate principles of animal production applicable to the feed resources available to farmers.
It has taken time to gather the information, but a useful record of experiences has now been accumulated by FAO's Feed Resources Group. It is clear that classical feeding standards are outdated and not useful for treated straw and excess feeding.
One critical factor in adoption can be dealt with. That is the grey area between research and large- scale extension, otherwise called the pilot project.
A pilot village trial requires the same systematic testing as research. It is important to be very sensitive to farmers' preferences and be prepared to listen to their ideas even when they go against conventional, professional thinking.
Two examples illustrate this point.
Anhydrous ammonia or urea in China?
In one UNDP/FAO- sponsored project in China, two different ammoniation technologies were tried. One was anhydrous ammonia involving a centralized supply of ammonia. Treatment had to be arranged at a fixed time for all farmers in the village, as it involved somewhat sophisticated and expensive equipment that was beyond the capacity of individual farmers.
In the other case, urea was used, which individual farmers could buy in the market at their convenience.
An analysis of the two cases over some years clearly revealed a stagnating trend in areas where anhydrous ammonia was used, while the number of farmers treating straw and the quantities they treated continued to expand in areas where urea was used. The use of urea was also very clearly the technology of greatest interest.
Small or big stacks in India?
In India, many on- farm pilot trials have been conducted with treated straw using urea as the source of ammonia. However, in the experience of the National Dairy Development Board, a breakthrough came only when it was realized that farmers found the treatment of small quantities too demanding in terms of labour. They preferred to treat large quantities - 1 tonne or more at a time - depending on the number of animals there were to feed.
Success in the application of the technologies presented in this booklet will depend to a large extent on the sensitivity of extension workers to farmers' preferences. When a technology has been adjusted to the conditions and satisfaction of some farmers, these farmers can then help explain the technology to their colleagues.
Villagers in many parts of the world often operate by consensus. Introducing a new technology is therefore a question of creating a new consensus - it is not enough to demonstrate it to one or two farmers. To swing the consensus in favour of a new technology, a pilot project should arrange for 25 to 50 percent of the farmers to try the new technology successfully. In this manner a critical group of villagers who are confident with the new technology is created.
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