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Significance of Feed Supplementation on Milk Yield and Milk Composition of Dairy Cow

Abstract

Milk composition and production are the interaction of many elements within the cow and her external environment. Composition of milk influenced by many factors such as genetic and breeds differences, stage of location, milking interval, seasonal variation, disease and nutrition. Nutrition is the major factor on both milk yield and composition. The three factors: Genetic makeup, nutrition and management decide the productivity of dairy cows. Improvement of genetic make up only contributes up to 30% to production, while the 70% is dependent on nutrition and management. Unfortunately, indigenous of tropical dairies are low milk producers because of the shortage of nutrition. Poor nutritive values of feeds lower the production capacity and fertility potential of dairies. If fed well, with supplementary feeds and under good management, more milk could be produced from them. So, supplementary feed with optimum dietary ration providing for dairy cows in good management improves the production level and good proportional composition of product with high nutritive value.

Keywords: Milk fat; Globule membrane; Volatile; Fatty acids; Nutrition; Dairy production

Abbrevations: Igs: Immune Globulins; MFGM: Milk Fat Globule Membrane; NFC: Non-Fiber Carbohydrate; NRC: Nutritional Requirement of Cattle; SNF: Solid Not Fat; TMR: Total Mixed Ratio; VFAs: Volatile Fatty Acids

Introduction

From agricultural activities, dairy production and its management is the one which is the interest of every country because of high nutritional value of milk and milk products and another purpose gained from them. And the feed they consume is not compete with human food and also, they convert feed which is not directly eaten by human being to products that human being can consume. That means, special ability of dairy cattle to transfer feed stuffs into edible food for humans and as much as 70% of their total feed intake is from non-human food. Food requirements of rapidly expanding human population is the other reason which initiates or give importance the development of dairy production

Milk composition and production are the interaction of many elements within the cow and her external environments Chemical composition of milk is variable and influenced by intrinsic factors like genetic and breed differences, stage of lactation, milking interval, seasonal variation, disease and nutrition. Protein content of milk is positively correlated within a population of dairy cattle; however, different breeds of cattle vary in average component levels. Holsteins have the lowest fat and protein content, while Jersey and Guernsey breeds have the highest. Because Holsteins produce more milk, they generally have a higher total yield of fat and protein than other breeds. There are many factors that can affect milk fat and protein, and many of them can be manipulated to enable you to achieve higher than average levels of milk components. Keep in mind that herds that are below breed average will have more opportunity to improve component levels. Herds that are already above average may have better success by focusing on increasing milk yield, which will increase the total amount of fat and protein production [1].

Stage of lactation affects milk protein and fat percentages very similarly. The highest amount of protein and fat in milk is found just after freshening, in colostrum. Levels drop to their lowest point between 25 and 50 days after calving and peak at 250 days as milk production begins to decrease. Age tends to cause both milk fat and protein to decline as the animal becomes older. Milk fat falls about 0.2% each year from the first to fifth lactation likely as a result of higher production and more udder infections. Protein decreases 0.02 to 0.05% each lactation as animals age.

Season dramatically affects milk fat and protein. The hot, humid months depress fat and protein content. There is a gradual increase of protein and fat in milk through the fall and peak levels occur in the colder months of winter. As temperatures increase through the spring, component levels are gradually decreased. These changes may be indicative of feed intake patterns, which are lower in summer due to changes in weather and temperature. Mastitis infections reduce fat and casein but increase blood protein content of milk. Of all the factors affecting milk composition, nutrition and feeding practices are most likely to cause problems; however, management changes made here are able to quickly and dramatically alter production of fat and protein other than genetics. Digestion of fiber in the rumen produces the volatile fatty acids (VFAs) acetate and butyrate. Butyrate provides energy for the rumen wall, and much of it is converted to betahydroxy butyrate in the rumen wall tissue. About half of the fat in milk is synthesized in the udder from acetate and betahydroxy butyrate. The other half of milk fat is transported from the pool of fatty acids circulating in the blood. These can originate from body fat mobilization, absorption from the diet, or from fats metabolized in the liver. Rumen microbes convert dietary protein into microbial protein, which is a primary source of essential amino acids for the cow. These amino acids are used by the mammary gland to synthesize milk proteins

Glucose is required to provide energy to support this protein synthesis. Glucose is either formed from the VFA propionate in the liver or absorbed directly from the small intestine. If too little propionate is absorbed from the rumen, the cow will have to breakdown amino acids and convert them to glucose (a process called gluconeogenesis); this can reduce the supply of amino acids available to make milk protein. In addition, some albumin and immunoglobulin protein are transferred directly to milk from the blood. The relative amounts of protein and energy that are available in the rumen at a given time is the major factor affecting rumen fermentation and therefore milk components. Any diet or management factors that affect rumen fermentation can change milk fat and protein levels. Consistently providing adequate energy and protein and balanced amounts of rapidly fermentable carbohydrate and effective fiber are keys to maintaining optimum levels of milk components.

The challenge in feeding for milk components is that high energy, low fiber diets that increase milk protein are likely to reduce fat levels. This may also be the case in some diets with rumen modifiers, such as Rumensin®; however, this product has other ways to affect the rumen that do not necessarily alter milk components. Any situation that causes cows to eat abnormally or limits feed intake may affect milk components. Examples include: overcrowding at feed bunks, housing heifers with older cows in facilities at or near full capacity, feeding rations that encourage sorting, feeding infrequently in a conventional system (non- TMR), failing to push feed up or feed TMR often enough, feeding protein feeds before energy feeds and feeding grain before forage in non- TMR systems. These conditions can create slug feeding (one or two meals per day versus 10 to 15) or allow cows to eat high grain meals part of the time and high forage meals the remainder of the day. Ensure that fresh feed is available 20 hours each day, spoiled feed is removed from bunks, and shade or cooling is provided during hot weather to help maintain normal intake and normal meal patterns. Poor ventilation or cow comfort also can depress milk fat and protein production by reducing intake. Finally, make ration changes gradually to allow rumen microorganisms time to adapt.

Any reduction in rumen microbial protein production from nutrition or feeding management imbalances will reduce milk protein by way of less microbial protein for the cow to digest and depress fat by limiting VFA production in the rumen. Proper body condition is essential so that high producing cows can draw on body stores of nutrients to support milk production. If body stores are minimal, yields of milk and milk components will suffer. On the other hand, excessive body condition increases the risk of metabolic problems and calving difficulty. Weight loss in early lactation can increase milk fat content for a short period of time. Both thin and fat cows tend to have low milk fat in later lactation. Protein can be depressed at calving if animals are overly obese or underweight. In addition, some research shows that underfeeding protein during the last three weeks before calving can depress milk protein [1]. In general, as energy intake or ration energy density increase and/or fiber decreases, milk fat content will be reduced, while protein is increased. In contrast, as ration fiber levels increase and/or energy is reduced, milk protein is depressed, and milk fat is increased. Lack of energy intake or lower ration digestibility may reduce milk protein by 0.1 to 0.4%. This reduction may result from underfeeding concentrates, low forage intake, poor quality forage, and failure to balance the ration for protein and minerals, or inadequately ground or prepared grains. Shifting rumen fermentation so that more propionic acid is produced is apt to increase milk protein and decrease fat content. However, excessive energy intake, such as overfeeding concentrate, may reduce milk fat content and increase milk protein. Normal protein levels can be expected when energy needs are being met for most of the cows. Often this is impossible to achieve with high producing animals.

A deficiency of crude protein in the ration may depress protein in milk; marginal deficiency could result in a reduction of 0.0 to 0.2%, while more severe restriction of diet crude protein would have greater impact. However, feeding excessive dietary protein does not increase milk protein, as most of the excess is excreted. Dietary protein has little effect on milk fat levels within normal ranges. Diet protein type also could affect milk protein levels. Use of non-protein nitrogen (NPN) compounds, like urea, as protein substitutes will reduce protein in milk by 0.1 to 0.3% if the NPN is a main provider of crude protein equivalent. Rations higher than recommended in soluble protein may lower milk protein by 0.1 to 0.2 points. NPN levels in milk will be increased by excessive protein or NPN intake, heavy feeding of ensiled forages, ensiled grains, immature pasture and lack of rumen undegradable protein in the diet. Balance rations for crude protein, rumen undegradable protein, rumen degradable protein, and soluble protein. For high producing cows, balancing for amino acids also may be required.

An increase in the intake of concentrates causes a decrease in fiber digestion and acetic acid production. This creates an increase of propionic acid production. Propionic acid production encourages a fattening metabolism that is in opposition to milk fat. Addition of buffers to some rations may help to prevent acidosis; this will not change milk protein but will increase milk fat content [2]. Animals that eat a substantial amount of concentrates or a low ratio of dietary forage to concentrate may develop acidosis even when buffers are added to the ration. The non-fiber carbohydrate (NFC) portion of the diet is highly digestible and can influence both fat and protein in milk. Excessive amounts of NFC can depress fiber digestibility, which reduces the production of acetate and leads to low milk fat (1% or more reduction). At the same time, greater propionate production allows higher milk protein levels of 0.2 to 0.3%. Generally, an NFC of 32 to 38% of ration dry matter is recommended to optimize production of milk fat and protein.

Balance rations for lactating cows to contain at least 40 to 45% of ration dry matter from forage. This may be altered by the level of corn silage in the ration and the level of high-fiber by-product feeds in the ration. Low forage intake can cause a major reduction in the fat content of milk due to low fiber levels. Several potential reasons for low forage intake are inadequate forage feeding, poor quality forage, and low neutral detergent fiber (NDF) content in forage that was cut too young or late in the fall. Although low forage (high energy) diets increase milk protein production, this strategy is not recommended. The low forage levels contribute to acidosis and laminitis; they do not promote good health for the rumen or the cow in the long run. Protein and fat content also can be changed due to the physical form of forage being fed. Much of this is related to ration sorting and failure to provide a consistent diet throughout the day. Coarsely chopped silage and dry hay are the most common causes of sorting. At the other extreme, very finely ground diets negatively affect rumen metabolism and depress fat and protein production. Monitor ration particle size to ensure that adequate effective fiber is provided, TMRs are mixed properly, rations are distributed evenly to all cows, and sorting is minimal [3].

Adding fat to the ration can affect milk component levels depending on the amount and source of fat. Fat is generally toxic to rumen microbes and may reduce fiber digestibility when fat from natural sources exceeds 5% of ration dry matter. If rumen inert or bypass fat is used, total fat content may safely reach 6 to 7%. At low levels of dietary fat, milk fat content could increase slightly or show no change at all. Milk fat is reduced at higher levels, especially with polyunsaturated oils. If fat or oil is rancid, milk fat content decreases even at low levels of consumption. Milk protein content may be decreased by 0.1 to 0.3% in high-fat diets. Generally, the objective is reviewing the significance of feed supplementation on milk yield and milk composition of dairy cow

Rate of Milk Secretion

The period following milk removal is characterized by low intra-alveolar pressure, which facilitate the transport of newly synthesized milk into the alveolar lumen. As secretion continues between milking’s, pressure is exerted on the secretory process by the alveolar luminal contents. When the luminal pressure exceeds the force of secretion as the alveolar enlargement reaches its limit. It is presumed that the distention pressure of the lumen exceeds the strength of the secretory mechanism needed to push the newly forced milk precursors by chemical feedback mechanism and or physical factors (e.g.,intra-mammary pressure [4].

The physical factors are a result of the distended alveoli partially displacing all other intra-mammary compartments, including the blood vessels. With restricted blood flow, less nutrients are available for milk production, less hormones are available to drive the mammary synthetic systems, removal of waste products of synthesis is reduced and less ox toxin is available to stimulate the myoepithelial cells. In dairy cows, average secretion rate begins to decline after ten hrs since the last milking and secretion stops after thirty five hrs .The pressure measured in the teat cistern increases in three phases. An initial rapid increase in the pressure caused by the movement of residual milk into the cistern from the alveoli and small ducts. The second, lower phase can be an accumulation of newly synthesized milk that is released into the duct system from the alveolar lumens as they begin to accumulate milk. The third phase is marked by the accelerated pressure increase and probably represent over filling of alveoli, ducts and gland cisterns [4].

Factors affecting Milk Yield and Milk Composition

Milk composition and production are the interaction of many elements within the cow and her external environments [5]. High milk yield of satisfactory composition is the most important factor ensuring high economic returns. If the composition of milk varies widely, its implication is that nutritive value and its availability as a raw material will also vary. Chemical composition of milk is variable and influenced by intrinsic factors like genetic and breed differences, stage of lactation, milking interval, seasonal variation, disease and nutrition [1].

Genetic and breed differences: Heritability is defined as the ratio of genetic variance to total phenotypic ratio. The concentrations % of the three major milk constituents are genetically controlled to a considerable extent. Heritability’s of fat, protein, and lactose contents average: 0.58, 0.49 and 0.5 respectively, while that of milk yield average is 0.27 [1]. The above Table1 indicate that there is a room to increase milk protein % by genetic selection without increasing fat % and that selection for high milk yield alone may reduce milk fat and protein %. Milk from Holstein cows has a lower milk fat % than milk from Jersey and Guernsey. droplets also differ among breeds. Holstein has smallest fat droplet while Guernsey and Jersey Brown swiss has the largest. Milk of Jersey cows also has a higher total solid than milk from other dairy cattle breeds. Differences in milk composition among individual with a breed are often larger than differences among breeds. Milk color also affected by breed type. For example, milk from Guernsey and Jersey is yellowish in color because if these breeds convert much less carotene (yellow pigment) to vitamin A than other breeds of dairy cow (Table 2).

Stage of lactation: Colostrum, the first mammary secretion after parturition differs greatly from normal milk. Cows colostrum contains more minerals, protein and less lactose than milk. Fat is usually higher in colostrum than in milk.Ca,Mg,P,and Cl are high in colostrum’s, whereas K is low. Fe is 10-17 times higher in colostrums than in milk. The high levels Fe are needed for the rapid increase in hemoglobin in the red blood cells of newborn calf. Colostrum contains ten times as much vitamin A and three times as much vitamin D as milk [6]. The most remarkable differences between colostrum and milk is the extremely high levels of Ig content of colostrum. Mammary secretion gradually changes from colostrum to normal milk within 3-5 postpartum [7]. From normal milk changes in composition occur during the first few days continue but at reduced rate for about five weeks of lactation. Fat and protein then rise gradually and may increase mare sharply near the end of lactation. Lactose decreases while mineral concentration increases slightly during that period.

Milking Interval: When milking is done at longer intervals the yield is also more with a corresponding smaller percentage of fat, whereas milk drawn at short intervals yield smaller quantities with higher amount of fat. The effect milking interval is mainly on fat percentage rather than the SNF [8]. The fat content of milk is usually lower in the morning than in the evening milking, because there is usually a much shortage interval between the morning and evening milking than between evening and morning. SNF content varies little even if the intervals between milking vary. Cows are usually milked at equal intervals (12-hrs interval for two times milking). Cows milked at unequal intervals produce less milk than those milked at equal intervals. The reduction in milk yield is more i8n high producing cows than in low producing ones. In complete milking for several consecutive days can permanently reduce milk yield for the entire lactation. Milking time for most cows is 5-6 minutes per cow [7].

Season of calving and seasonal variation: The effect of season of calving on milk yield is confounded by breed, the stage of lactation and climatic condition. Cows calving in the late fall to soring produce more milk (up to 8% more) than cows calving in the summery. This is likely due to an interaction between day light and ambient temperature in case of tropical areas. Seasonal differences have become less significant because of better feeding and management of dairy cow can overcome this effect. The seasonal variations in milk composition are commonly observed with dairy cattle in temperate regions. Milk fat and SNF percentages are highest in Winter and lowest in Summer. Milk fat and protein percentages are lower by 0.2-0.4 in summer than in winter. The effect of ambient temperature on milk yield is dependent up on the breed, for example, Holstein and the other larger breeds are more tolerant to lower temperature whereas the smaller breeds particularly the Jersey and Zebu are more tolerant to high temperature. Milk production declines when environment temperature exceeds 27 degree Celsius. The reduction in milk yield is largely due to drop in feed intake. High temperature affect high producing cows more than low producers and it is particularly harmful during the peak of lactation.

Disease: The main disease affect milk yield and milk composition of dairy cows is mastitis. It impairs the ability of secretory tissue synthesize milk composition and destroys the secretory tissues and consequently lowering milk yield. A decrease in milk production persists after the disappearance of the clinical signs of mastitis due to a destruction in the secretory tissues [9]. Infection of udder (mastitis) greatly influences milk composition. Concentration of fat, SNF, lactose, casein, beta-lacto globulin and alfa-lactalbumin are lowered and concentrations of blood of blood serum albumin, Igs, sodium, chloride are increased [10]. In severe mastitis, the casein content may be below the normal limit of 78 % of total protein and chloride content may be rise above the normal maximum level of 0.12 %. Mastitis is also responsible for differences observed in milk composition from different quarters of the udder

Nutrition: Nutrition has also a major effect on both milk yield milk composition. According to O’Connor [10], under feeding reduces the amount milk production, the fat, protein and SNF, contents of milk. As a general rule it is believed in that any ration of diet that increases milk production, usually reduces the fat percentage of milk and fat content is influenced more by roughages (fiber) intake and SNF content can fall if the cow fed a low energy diet, but it is not greatly influenced by protein deficiency, unless the deficiency is acute. Of all milk components, milk fat is the most influenced by dietary manipulations. Most of changes in milk composition due to dietary manipulation are related to changes in ruminal acetate: propionate ratio. Several nutrition factors can influence milk composition. These includes plan of nutrition, forage concentrate ratio, forage quality (e.g., particle size), level and type of dietary fat. In plan of nutrition, under feeding dairy cows reduces lactose percentage and increases fat percentage. Feeding imbalance rations (e.g., low energy: protein ratio) may reduce milk fat and protein percentages. In case of forage concentrate, as the proportion of the concentrate in the ratio increases (above 50-60 % of ration), milk fat % tends decline. This is mainly because of the lower ruminal production of acetate and butyrate (precursors of milk fatty acid synthesis in the mammary gland) associated with feeding high concentrate diets. The extent of milk fat depression is influenced by other feeding practices such as frequency of feeding and feeding system. Feeding cows less frequently especially if the concentrates are fed separately from the forage results in a reduced ruminal acetate: propionate ratio which in turn can result in reduced milk fat % will be less where total mix rations are fed and or if feed is offered three or more times daily

Forage particle size (forage processing), feeding finely chopped forages has a negative impact on milk fat % and may cause milk fat depression syndrome (drop of milk fat % below 3 %). Cows fed finely chopped forages spend less time to chewing and therefore, will produce less saliva. Ruminal PH will drop as less saliva is produced to buffer the acid production in the rumen. As the ruminal PH drops below 6, the activity of cellulolytic bacteria is reduced and so it is the production of acetic acid and butyric acid (precursors of short chain fatty acid synthesis in mammary gland). In case of level of starch in the ration, as the level of starch in the ration increases, the level of acetate produced in the rumen is decreased while that of propionate is increased. This may cause a reduction in milk fat %. Dietary Fat Corporation or oil in dairy cow ration can substantially alter the profile of milk fatty acids. The effect of supplemented fat in milk fat % depends on the type of supplement of fat. Feeding poly unsaturated fat (susceptible bio hydrogenation in the rumen) such as vegetable oils may reduce milk fat % whereas feeding protected fat tend to increase milk fat %. Changes in dietary protein levels have minimum effects on milk fat content. When the protein content of the diet is limiting, increased dietary protein may increase milk fat content through increases in roughage intake (Table 3).

Nutritional Requirement of Dairy Cow

Feed serves many different purposes, including the following Maintenance: The normal activities of staying alive breathing, blood circulation, digestive process, etc. all requires nutrient. This maintenance is not for extra function like production unless extra feed is provided for cell function [11]. Reproduction: Pregnancy and delivery make demands on the dam which have to be met from her feed, if it is not to lose weight. The fetus increases in size quickly during the last two to three months of gestation, drawing on the body reserves of the dam. Lactation: Producing milk either for one or two offspring or for human consumption requires high levels of energy and protein and good access to protein and good access to water.

Factors Influencing Nutritional Requirement of Dairy Cow

Nutritional requirement of dairy cow influenced by many factors like stage of production, condition of the environment, size of the cow and the like. Stage of production: One of the most challenging aspects of dairy cow nutrition is that their requirements change during the course of a year based on stage of pregnancy and lactation NRC [12]. Weather: Cold weather greatly increases the nutritional requirement. Therefore, during cold weather, the cow’s diet may need to be supplemented to allow for the additional requirement dairy perform optimally in their “their monaural zone” where temperatures are either too hot or too cold. When the ambient temperature, which includes wind, humidity, solar radiation and air temperature, is outside of that zone, dairy performance is depressed [13]. The most common situation dairy man face is an ambient temperature below the lower critical temperature or the lower range of the thermo neutral zone. Tit should be pointed out that in cases simply feeding more of a low-quality feed stuff will not meet these additional requirements, in which case the energy density of the diet must be increased by either feeding a highquality forage or by adding a high energy supplement. Size: As cows size increases, the nutritional requirement for energy and protein increases. This should be expected because the larger cow is the more energy and protein it takes to maintain normal body functions.

Priorities and strategies for feed Resources Development

The feed value of forage that form the basis for ruminant feeding is a functional of its nutrient content and digestibility, its palatability (which determines its consumption level) and the associative effects of the other feeds [14]. Interplay of these factors determines the effective utilization or feed value of the material. Strategies for ensuring adequate nutrition of animal includes the following like: matching dairy production system to available resources, selection of crops and cropping systems that will maximize biomass production, and developing the simple techniques to optimize the use of different components of crops for different end purpose, making more efficient and wide spread use of agricultural and industrial by products as source of dairy feed, and also conserving feeds when it is available for drought season. From these strategies, increasing feed availability with production system of dairy number is through increasing off take of animals through sale (destocking). The amount of feed available to the remaining animals will increase in the process [14] (Table 4).

Types of Supplementary Feeds

Supplementary feed is any stuff added to the total diet of the animal to increase the nutritive value of the feed and to increase content of single nutrient or compound nutrient. These supplementary feeds includes protein supplement (legumes, oil seed cause, meat meal, fish meal), mineral supplements (salt (Na), limestone (ca), bone meal (ca and p), and others), vitamin supplement (natural and synthetic) and energy supplement (fat and carbohydrate like concentrate feed those the high amount of energy and low fiber content and high digestibility with high protein content [15]. Protein supplement: Conditions under which milk production can be increased by feeding protein supplements are well defined, although it is not possible to estimate liters of milk per kg of supplement with great accuracy. Results from feeding trials in Australia indicate that milk responses from protein supplements can be up to 1.5 liter per kg supplement than from equal weights of cereal grains. Usually the responses are much lower when energy is first limiting. In most cases milk production from tropical pastures is limited primarily by energy. When energy is limiting, protein supplements gives similar milk responses equal amount of cereal grains and surplus nitrogen is converted to ammonia and excreted as urea [16] However, as energy supply from cereal grains is increased, the protein content of the diet becomes limiting for milk production. Protein supplement then allow increases in milk yield with only small changes in milk composition. The conditions where protein supplements give greater milk responses than cereal grains are determined by stage of lactation, Genetic potential, forage quality degradability of the protein supplement, substitution rate.

Energy supplement: In order to improve milk production levels, energy input such as concentrate feeds have to be considered essential for any enterprise, even for those based on dual purpose systems, since reduced intake of energy by dairy cows consuming low quality forages is the principal cause of low milk production .Traditionally, energy supplements are based on cereal grains that include barley, sorghum, wheat, cats, maize, and etc, Molasses is a very popular energy source for cattle grazing tropical pastures. Agro- industrial by products are fed as supplement to roughagebased diets, particularly in dairy production system for milking. Concentrates rich in energy mixture or adulteration with other depends on the quality of the basal roughage and the level of production. Agro industrial by products can be utilized by mixing of two or more of the ingredients to make concentrate at home or using a single in gradient. They have special value in feeding cattle mainly in urban and pre urban dairy production systems as well as in situation where the productive potential of the animals is relatively high ad require high nutrient supply. These by products are rich in energy and protein contents or both, they have low fiber content, high digestibility and energy values compared to with the other class of feeds .To prevent the effect of heavy concentrate feeding on low forage, concentrate ratios can be mitigated by splitting up the concentrate allowance in to several smaller meals spread more evenly over the twenty four hours. By this means, digestive up sets are avoided, protein is more efficiently waltzed, and lactation partition is more normal. Rig milk fat is improved [17].

Mineral supplement: In providing proper nutrition to dairy cows, the dairy man needs to consider minerals in addition to protein, energy, water, and vitamins. Even through minerals are needed only in small amounts, they are very important for optimum reproduction, immune function, and optimal milk production. Minerals are divided in to two groups by the amount needed of each. Macro minerals are required in larger amounts, while micro minerals are required in smaller amounts. The micro minerals required includes calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, sodium, chloride and sulfur. The micro minerals required includes Iron, cobalt, copper, manganese, zinc, Iodine, and selenium cows get some of the micro minerals and micro minerals from the feeds they eat. However, minerals must be added to the ration in order to meet the requirements, because, the forages and grain do not provide adequate amounts. If these minerals are not, supplemented, problems may occur. For instance, selenium deficiency can cause retained placentas [18].

Several items must be taken into consideration when buying mineral supplement. First, the supplement must contain all the macro minerals and micro minerals that are deficient in the ration. Also, the supplement must contain the appropriate amounts of each mineral to be effective. The in gradients with supply the semimetals should also be considered because some a lower bio availability than others. Bio availability is the ability of the cow to digest and utilize the minerals provided. If the bio availability of the cow is low, then the amount of the mineral fed must be increased, so the cow will get an adequate amount. For example, copper oxide has very low bio availability. Copper sulfate is a better source of copper [19]. The best way to feed the mineral supplement is by force feeding rather than free choice. When minerals are supplemented free choice, the cow does not eat to meet her mineral requirement needs. Force feeding refers to mixing the mineral supplement with the grain mix or the total mixed ration. This ensures that the cow gets enough of each mineral to meet her requirements. It is equally important not to just dump a lot of mineral supplement with the grain mix or total mixed ration because too much of certain minerals will cause toxicity problems or inhibit the functioning ability of other minerals. Thus, the forages fed to the cows should first be analyzed for their mineral content, if it is not already known. Next, the ration should be balanced so that all of the mineral requirements are met. Then the deficiency can be identified and corrected by feeding the correct mineral supplement

Specific Disadvantage of Heavy Concentrate Feeding in Early Lactation

Even though cows should be fed heavily with concentrates in the first few weeks of lactation, to encourage high peak yield, there are some specific problems, some of which are dealt with more heavy concentrate feeding in early lactation. These includes ailments such as ketosis, abomasal displacement, laminitis, and mal partition syndrome involving low fat milk and reduced lactation efficiency [20].

Processing Concentrate Feeds

It is generally accepted that some processing of cereal grains is required before cattle can effectively utilize the energy and nutrient content of concentrate feeds. While increasing the degree of processing improves utilization, it may also lead to digestive problems when high levels of grain are fed and may accentuate fat depression in milk. The type and extent of processing required depends on number of factors including the grain type, the proportion of grain in the diet, palatability, and the risk of developing digestive problems. If a whole untreated grain is fed, large proportion of it can pass undigested in the faces. The minimum level of processing required to ensure efficient grain digestion is cracking the seed coat t expose the endosperm. This must be achieved by mechanical or chemical treatments as dairy cattle have only delimited ability to chew small cereal grains. The main nutritional significance of the seed coat is the extent to which it dilutes the amount of starch in the diet [21].

The second level of processing involves grinding and rolling, to reduce particle size which in turn determines the surface area, which is exposed to microbial and digestive enzymes. This ultimately influences the number of starch granules freed from the protein and no starch carbohydrate matrix of the endosperm [22]. When starch granules are tightly held with in endosperm matrix, it may be necessary to use gelatinization and or hydration (i.e. high temperature with or without water) to disrupt the granules. Conversely, grinding or milling can produce extremely fine particles which can be rapidly fermented digested and can reduce the palatability of the grain if excessively dusty.

The third method of processing is steam flaking. With this treatment, the whole grain is heated with steam for 10-40 minutes and subsequently rolled to varying degree [22]. This breaks the seed coat and endosperm, although the whole grain remains as one. This process gelatins much of the starch making it more susceptible to enzymatic attack. Grains such as barley, whet and oats, which have a naturally high fermentation and intestinal digestion when ground or dry rolled, are not affected as much by steam flaking rolled grain. At present time, practical problems such as risks in handing NaoH as well as corrosion concerns restrict use of this processing method. For this reason, alternatives such as ammonia treatment might be more practical.

The fourth method is polluting which is common commercial process where small particles are combined into large particle by means of a mechanical process in combination with moisture, heat and pressure. It is believed in that concentrate polluting decrease waste, reduces dust, minimizes spoilage [23], improves feed efficiency and provides a means for uniform distribution of protein and minerals. There are several potential advantages of feeding pellets over meal or a loose ix like Balanced proportion of protein, minerals, vitamins, and buffers can be in corporate in to the pellets, the higher the level of concentrate feeding, the greater the live hood that nutrient balancing will be necessary [24], risk of excessive un palatable and toxic substances associated with supplements for example urea are avoided by careful blending of ingredients, pellets usually are loss dusty than mechanically processed grains. Therefore, it appears that relatively small change in the processing of concentrate can have a substantial influence on the degradation characteristics of the concentrate and can alter the yield of milk components significantly. Polluted for mutations, when compared to textured concentrates, tend to improve degradability, lower rumen PH, increase milk and protein yield and can depress milk fat yield and percentage, without affecting intake [25-27].

Summary and Conclusion

Milk composition and production are the interaction of many elements within the crow and her external environments. Composition of milk influenced by many factors like genetic and breed differences, stage location, milking interval, seasonal variation, disease and nutrition from these factors, nutrition is the major factor on both milk yield and milk composition. Under feeding reduces the amount milk production, fat, protein and SNF contents of milk. Of all milk components, milk fat is the most influenced by dietary manipulations. Several nutritional factors can influence milk composition. These includes: - plan of nutrition, forage concentrate ratio, forage quality (like particle size, level and type of dietary fat). Major components of milk are water lactose, lipids, proteins, salts, minerals and vitamins. These components arising from several factors including breed, individuality of the animal, stage of location, health of the animal, (especially mastitis) and nutritional status.

Dairy cows use nutrition for purpose of maintenance, reproduction, location (production) and etc. while factors influencing nutritional requirement of dairy cow are stage of lactation, condition of the environment size of the cow and the like. Strategies for ensuring adequate nutrition of dairy cows are matching dairy production system to available resources, selection of crops and cropping system that will maximize biomass production, and developing the simple techniques to optimize are use of different components of crops residues, making more efficient and wide spread use of agricultural and industrial by products as source of elating feed, conserving feeds when it is available for drought seasons when saucily of feed is happen and using grazing system for pastures for avoiding wastage of resources. Supplementary feed is any feed stuff added to the total died of the animal to increase the nutritive value of the feed and to increase content of a single nutrient or compound nutrient. These types of supplementary feeds are protein, energy supplement (carbohydrate and fat), mineral, and vitamin. It is believed in that some processing of supplementary feeds is required before cattle can effectively utilize it. But, type and the extent of processing depends on number of factors like supplementary feed type, the proportion of supplementary diet, palatability and etc. the methods and system of processing includes creaking, grinding, steam flaking, polluting and etc

Recommendation

In tropical areas except commercial dairy farm, state farm, and farms follow modern method of keeping dairy cattle, others like farmers dairy cow fail under shortage of nutrition, poor management, and the production and product obtained from these dairy cows are less. This under feeding susceptible the dairies for disease and lose of the animal also there. To reduce some extent degree of these problems, the following activities should be done. a. Supplementary feeds should be supplied. b. Management should be considered as major activity of keeping. c. Having more dairy cows without enough feed available should be reduced to be profitable from optimum number of head of dairies under good management. d. Feeds should be conserved when it is available for the period shortage of feed is occurring. e. Ways of providing supplementary feeds should be proper to avoid extra problem happen with in the cow of improper ration

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#avian diseases #Dairy Diseases #dairy farms #veterinary microbiology #Juniper Publishers #open access journals

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onlinejournalclubadvancedlevel02 · 3 years ago

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ELT 1410-Academic English II Paraphrasing Activity 02

Effects of Climate Change on Livestock: Sri Lankan Perspectives

Crops and livestock are major sub-economic sectors of Sri Lankan agriculture. The contribution of the livestock sector to Sri Lanka's gross domestic product is rising in recent years. The animal agriculture sector is responsible for 9% of CO2 emissions. Enteric fermentation and farm animal manure are responsible for around 35-40% of yearly global anthropogenic methane emissions. Rising temperatures could diminish roughage yields or ruin the harvest, resulting in a feed shortage and poorer animal productivity. Though livestock sector contributes people's livelihoods both economically and socially, the impact of global warming on the industry under Sri Lankan settings has been less well studied. Goals of this review are to aggregate statistics on livestock GHG emissions and climate change research and development activities.

Main greenhouse gas emitted by livestock is methane. Amount of emission depends on the body features of the animal, metabolism and feed quality. Conclusion of the LOKUPITIYA (2016) estimate can be identified that the methane emission factor for dairy cows, buffaloes and sheep were lower than the respective IPCC default values. FAO and the New Zealand government funded a project and estimated the greenhouse gas emissions by cattle in Sri Lanka. They considered feeding type, feeds available, agroecological zones of the country and the production systems. GHG emission is the highest in the Dry Zone while it is lowest in the Wet Zone. The production efficiency is low at Dry zone. These are significant for future mitigation and adaptation activities.

When we talk about the research and development activities related to greenhouse gas emission, the mitigation and adaptation measures in Sri Lanka is in scarcity due to the non- availability of infrastructure and lack of funds in the country. But at the present, the production efficiency of the livestock has increased significantly, mainly through improving nutrition, housing, welfare and health.

Precise facts are mandatory to address the detrimental impacts of climate change. Sri Lanka has only judgement values for GHG emissions since there are no facilities to measure those scientifically. Hence it is high time to establish a GHG emission measuring facility as well as for funding agencies and researchers to prioritize climate change in the livestock sector.

Climate change has a negative impact on the country's livestock business. Because the data on GHG emissions is mostly estimates, capacity improvement in this area should be prioritized. Some studies and development programs have been carried out in the country without focusing global warming mitigation or adaptation strategies, but it has contributed to that goal. So, more research and development projects in the livestock industry should be launched to minimize adverse climate change.

REFERENCES

Lokupitiya E. (2106): Country specific emission factors for methane emission from enteric fermentation: a case study from a non-annex 1 country. Journal of national Science Foundation, Sri Lanka 44(2): 137-144.

Advanced group- 02

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adj444 · 2 years ago

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JAN. 25 '23

such a shit time 4 me to be having some health complicationssss im not getting that much study in only 8hrs this week so far instead of 12 & no study tmrw so thats -4 more AUGHHHHHH my stummy hurt

BIOLOGY: omg hiii ok so defense systemmm i was out for bio yesterday cuz of ISSUES and accidentally missed a bit of a large portion of the chapter cuz i thought we'd just be correcting testss... i need to go over the dna isolation experiment badleigh but for now i play catchup

AG. SCIENCE: im so sleepy i dont want 2 make notes ahhhhhhhgghh DAIRY PARLOR TECH = rotary dairy parlor (high automation, milker attaches clusters / auto cluster removal & teat dip) cows walk onto rotating platform w/ preventative backing gate; milking robot (full automation), cows choose when milked, sends detailed report on details of each cow to farmer (SCC, rumination patterns, etc)

GRASSFED: best quality is perennial ryegrass ofc, 10% of global dairy 68% of irish dairy, most sustainable & lowest water footprint, greater fat & protein concentration, upped lvls of unsat fatty acids + omega-3, vit A, vit E, appealing colour (beta-carotine) + flavour (conjugated linoleic acids) + taste

TOTAL MIXED RATION: maize silage + grass silage + concentrates + molasses + straw, common in USA and some EU countries

SUSTAINABLE INTENSIFICATION: DAFM = food harvest 2020 pub. 2010 to up irish milk prod by 50% = upped dairy herd to 1.4mil (expanse = upped bull calf and heifer calves for beef), 2015 abolition of milk quotas = expand herds & sell more to dairy processor // food wise 2025 pub. 2015 = ie competitiveness in int markets, target quality-conscious, sustainable food prod intensification

CHALLENGES TO S. INT: capacity of farm for fodder (stocking rate > fodder prod =/= dairy expansion), climate change -> fodder crises -> animal deaths & farmer suicides, capacity for winter housing manure, inc fertilizer use (main nitrate source in groundwater, surfacewater) inc methane (EPA says ag = 30% irishh ghg emissions -> enhance C sequestration).... extra storage + housing, widened roadways, bigger paddocks

#daily

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gomselmashindia-blog · 6 years ago

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Gomselmash India

Gomselmash India Private Limited is a JV company of OJSC "Gomselmash", Republic of Belarus. Gomselmash India Private Limited was incorporated in India for Manufacturing, assembling, sales and after sales services in India, other SAARC and African countries.

Holding "Gomselmash" is one of the largest manufacturers of agricultural machinery ranking among the world market leaders of combine harvesters and other complexes of agricultural machines since 1930.

Today "Gomselmash" is a modern multi-manufacturer producing under the brand name "PALESSE" all range of Harvesting and farming equipments i.e.-

Combine harvesters for Grains & Pulses

· Forage harvesters

· Maize harvesters

· Potato-picking harvesters

· Cotton picking harvesting machine

· Combine harvesters for Soy bean and Sunflower

· Pull type harvesters, mowers, Cultivators, Ridgers and other agricultural machinery.

· Sowing equipments – Precision Seed and fertilizer drills, Tractor mounted Sprayers

· Dairy farming equipments- Total Mix Ration machine, Silage and Hay balers, Cow Brushes, Maize Choppers, Forage Harvesters, Drum Mowers, Feed Crushing Machines, Bale Loading Machines, Leveling Blades, Row independent maize choppers, Mixer Feeder Wagons and Cow Brush Machines .

Gomselmash agricultural equipments are manufactured and sold in brand name "PALESSE". We produce more than 16 categories of farm machinery, including 75 basic models and model types, 70 adapters and units for harvesting different agricultural crops. Agricultural producer with any acreage and crops can choose from these machines a set of most effective models for their conditions.

With a full range of modern production technologies "Gomselmash" independently produces the main parts and components for combine harvesters. It’s providing an opportunity to control the quality, to produce at the same time different types of machines, to maintain reasonable prices for the products.

Combine harvesters "PALESSE” are running in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, the Baltics, Argentina, Brazil, China, South Korea , Africa, Gulf and other countries. The company has a wide distribution and service network, a range of joint ventures and assembly plants.

#gomselmash #india #harvest #forage #harvester #combine #dairyfarm #equipment #machinery #silage #baler #celikel

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silageagro · 2 years ago

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Dry Corn Silage: Is it a Big Problem?

Numerous reports have told us that sometimes you get drier than usual corn silage; this can go on for years. Therefore, it is tough for us at Silage Agro to post a blog containing all the answers to your corn Silage for Cows-related questions.

Nutrient Analysis, dry matter, nitrate levels, analysis of other feedstuffs, your cow’s size, cow’s condition, environmental factors, and many more things can influence the amount of corn silage you require to feed. Therefore, silage Agro recommends that you consult your nutritionist or extension expert on your particular situation.

Is your dry corn silage a big issue?

Consider these things when feeding dryer than normal corn silage to your adorable cows. And if something like this happens to you, please don’t hesitate to order affordable Corn silage For Sale from us.

Dry Matter

Rainy days may keep you from harvesting corn silage at the correct time. Many corn silage bales will test and taste very dry to your cows. Some may even be at 50% dry matter. In addition, it can threaten some severe issues to fermentation and raise spoilage on the face of the bag, bale, or silage pile.

It can also allow molds on fodder. Therefore we give you a piece of solid advice to sample your corn silage and get a nutrition analysis on it. You should also analyze your bale for molds if any are present.

Protein or energy makeup

Dry corn silage might run low on protein. However, corn silage is primarily used for energy. Therefore, corn silage can present too much power for expecting cows, given that you are allowing your ruminants to eat without limits.

In most scenarios, it is least-cost to supplement some protein and limit-feed the silage to match energy needs. However, if your silage is dehydrated, cows can consume much more DM than corn silage at 35%. Therefore, it can create problems with overfeeding energy through a corn silage-based diet.

Ration palatability

If your corn silage is way more dry than usual, you might need to create adjustments to maintain a damp and acceptable diet for finishing rations; likewise, your cows won’t bother the extra dry percentage and feed on it.

For most diets, the simplest solution could be to add water to the total mixed rations. However, you can also use wet forms of co-products feeds such as wet distiller grains, wet corn gluten feed, or brewers grains to add moisture and nutrients.

Feeding plan

Offering ruminants hay-free-choice is an accepted practice in the Midwest. Utilizing the same hay-free-choice feeding method with corn silage can give you some pretty chunky smiling cows. The acceptability of corn silage is high. So your ruminants will eat approx. 41 to 45 kg of silage if you give your dairy friends a chance. In almost all cases, it’s overfeeding.

Therefore limit-feeding corn silage is the ideal feeding plan. But remember that your cow’s behavior will change, and it might bang your front door and ask for more because its stomach is empty. But you must resist as it is best for your cow’s health.

#Silage Suppliers Haryana #Silage Punjab #Buy Silage Online #Silage Supplier in India #Silage Manufacturers in India #Best Silage Suppliers in India

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onlinejournalclubintermediate03 · 3 years ago

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Effects of Climate Change on Livestock: Sri Lankan Perspectives Intermediate 03

Crop and livestock can be considered as the major sub-economic sectors of agriculture in Sri Lanka. The livestock sector in Sri Lanka contributes roughly 0.6 percent of the country's GDP, but this figure could be higher due to various reasons. Cattle and buffaloes are main livestock groups and sheep, goat, swine are micro livestock groups in Sri Lanka.

The fact that the livestock is responsible for the emission of major proportion of carbon-dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide gases which lead to the global warming is half unveiling that the world have focused on. This can lead to the reduction of crop harvest and productivity of animals. In order to overcome this problem many researches have launched by various people.

The main Green House gas emitted by livestock is the Methane. Methane is mainly emitting through fecal matter and urine. Animals' body size, metabolism, activity level, and feed quality are leading factors that determine the amount of methane that the animal is produced. Mr. Lokupitiya presumed that dairy cows’, buffaloes’, and sheep’s’ methane emission factor is lower than respective IPCC default values. Dairy buffaloes have highest value, while sheep have lower. In dry zone, there is a higher GHG emission while wet zone has a bit lower level.

Most researches focus mainly on GHG emissions, mitigation and adaptation measures in the livestock sector. Improvement of nutrition, housing, welfare and health can lead to an increased production efficiency . Also measures are taken to reduce the effects of high temperature and humidity. Temperate breeds can provide high potential output in favorable climatic conditions such as mid and upcountry parts of the country. Therefore most of the dairy farms have moved to intermediate and dry zones in Sri Lanka. High roof sheds and cooling and fogging systems have introduced to enhance ventilation in the farms that will pave the way for a best livestock farming. Due to lack of sufficient infrastructures, funds and expertise, most of the livestock farms are incapable of improving the production efficiency. Sri Lanka needs establishing a GHG emission measuring facility for livestock. It will determine the accurate adaptive and mitigating measures that can be implemented for the improvement of livestock sector. Funding agencies should include climate change as a component in their priority list.

Climate change has a negative effect on livestock industry. Therefore more researches and development programmes in the livestock sector should be launched to conquer the negative effects of climate change on livestock sector.

REFERENCES

Gill M., Smith P. and Wilkinson J.M.(2010): Mitigating climate change: The role of domestic livestock. Animal 4(3):323–333.

Johnson K.A.and Johnson D.E. (1995): Methane emissions from cattle. Journal of Animal Science 73: 2483 − 2492.

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onlinejournalclubintermediate1 · 3 years ago

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Effects of Climate Change on Livestock:Sri Lankan Perspectives

W.M.P.B.Weerasinghe

Veterinary Research Institute, Gannoruwa, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

Crop and livestock are the main agricultural sectors in Sri Lanka . The three main greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Both animal and crop agricultural sectors are responsible for carbon dioxide emissions. The livestock sector is mainly responsible for methane emissions formed by enteric fermentation, farm animal manure and ruminants.

Rising temperatures reduce roughage yields and destroy the harvest due to bad climate conditions. Cattle and buffaloes are main livestock groups and sheep, goat, swine are micro livestock groups in Sri Lanka. Cattle helps in many ways such as providing milk meat and fertilizer.

Methane is the most common greenhouse gas produced by livestock. The amount of methane produced by livestock is determined by the animals' body size, metabolism, activity level, and feed quality.

CONCLUSION

Climate alter includes negative impact on animals' industry. Data available on GHG eliminations is based on gauges and capacity.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The Creator of article like to thank Srilanka Chamber of Horticulture Research Policy for encouraging paper.

REFERENCES

Bodahewa A.P., Weerasinghe W.M.P.B.and Palliyeguru M.W.C.D. (2014): Effects of feeding

total mixed ration (TMR) on the production performance of dairy cows. The Sri

Lanka Veterinary Journal (Supplement) 11.

Gill M., Smith P. and Wilkinson J.M. (2010): Mitigating climate change: The role of domestic

livestock. Animal 4(3):323–333.

Johnson K.A.and Johnson D.E. (1995): Methane emissions from cattle. Journal of Animal

Science 73: 2483 − 2492.

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onlinejournalclubadvancedlevel03 · 3 years ago

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Effects of Climate Change on Livestock: Sri Lankan Perspectives

Crops and livestock are Sri Lankan agriculture's two most important sub-economic sectors. Sri Lanka's cattle sector accounts for around 0.6 percent of the country's GDP. The three main greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide (GHGs). The livestock sector contributes to global warming. Rising temperatures may reduce roughage yields or destroy the crop as a result of extended drought or excessive rains, leading in a feed scarcity and lower animal productivity.

Methane is the most common greenhouse gas produced by cattle. The amount of methane generated is determined by the animals' body size, metabolism, activity level, and feed quality. Lokupitiya used the tier 2 method proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to estimate the enteric methane emission of srilankan cattle and buffaloes, and found that the methane emission factors for dairy cows, buffaloes, and sheep were lower than the IPCC default values.

In Sri Lanka lacks direct study on GHG emissions, reduction, and adaptation possibilities. This could be due to a lack of suitable infrastructure, lack of financing and understanding in the country. Various studies have been conducted to increase cow production efficiency and primarily by improving nutrition, housing, welfare, and health.

Ranchers face a number of challenges including extreme weather. Quiet activities do not last in hot weather, and even heat-adapted local congregations produce less milk. In Sri Lanka's midsection and highlands, highly migratory animals thrive, but choking species have little habitat. In the country's center and desert regions, milk production must be relocated significantly.

To overcome the adverse effects of climate changes, these parameters should scientifically measured. So establishing GHG emission measuring facility for livestock is a must.

As there is a negative effect by climate on the livestock industry in the country, main priority should be given to establish GHG emission by doing more research programmes.

REFERENCES -

Bodahewa A.P., Weerasinghe W.M.P.B.and Palliyeguru M.W.C.D. (2014): Effects of feeding total mixed ration (TMR) on the production performance of dairy cows. The Sri Lanka Veterinary Journal (Supplement) 11. Gill M., Smith P. and Wilkinson J.M.(2010): Mitigating climate change: The role of domestic livestock. Animal 4(3):323–333. Johnson K.A.and Johnson D.E. (1995): Methane emissions from cattle. Journal of Animal Science 73: 2483 − 2492.

Advance 03

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onlinejournalclubbeginnerslevel1 · 3 years ago

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Effects of Climate Change on Livestock: Sri Lankan Perspectives

Crops and Livestock are the major sub-economic sectors of agriculture in Sri Lanka. The contribution of the livestock sector to the GDP of Sri Lanka has been increasing in recent years. The Animal Husbandry Division is responsible for 9% of CO2 emissions. Internal fermentation and farm manure are responsible for about 35-40% of the annual global human methane emissions. Rising temperatures can reduce or destroy coarse yields, leading to food shortages and poor animal productivity. Although the livestock sector contributes economically to the livelihoods of the people, the impact of global warming on the industry has been little studied in the Sri Lankan context. The objectives of this review are overall statistics on livestock greenhouse gas emissions and climate change research and development activities.

Methane is the major greenhouse gas emitted by livestock. The amount of emissions depends on the animal's body type, metabolism and food quality. LOKUPITİYA (2016) estimates that methane emission for dairy cows, buffaloes and sheep is lower than the relevant IPCC defaults. The project is funded by the FAO and the Government of New Zealand, and estimates of Sri Lankan cattle greenhouse gas emissions. They considered feeding type, feeds available, agro-ecological zones of the country and production systems. Greenhouse gas emissions are highest in the dry zone and lowest in the wet zone. Production efficiency is low in the dry zone, which is important for future mitigation and adaptation.

In terms of research and development related to greenhouse gas emissions, Sri Lanka's mitigation and adaptation measures are at a very low level due to lack of infrastructure and funding. But today, the productivity of the West Coast has increased significantly, mainly through the improvement of nutrition, housing, well-being and health. Specific factors are essential to address the adverse effects of climate change. Since Sri Lanka does not have the facilities to measure GHG emissions scientifically, it has only judgmental values. Therefore, this is a good time for institutions and researchers who have the facilities to measure greenhouse gas emissions as well as prioritize climate. Therefore, it is time to set up greenhouse gas emission centres as well as funding agencies and researchers to prioritize climate change in the livestock sector.

Climate change is adversely affecting livestock migration in countries. Capacity building in this area should be a priority as data on GHG emissions are largely estimated. Although some studies and development programs have been conducted in the country without focusing on global warming mitigation or adaptation strategies, it has contributed to that goal. Therefore, more research and development projects in the livestock industry should be launched to mitigate adverse climate change.

REFERENCES

Ø Gill M., Smith P. and Wilkinson J.M.(2010): Mitigating climate change: The role of domestic livestock. Animal 4(3):323–333.

Ø Bodahewa A.P., Weerasinghe W.M.P.B.and Palliyeguru M.W.C.D. (2014): Effects of feeding total mixed ration (TMR) on the production performance of dairy cows. The Sri Lanka Veterinary Journal (Supplement) 11.

Ø Lokupitiya E. (2106): Country specific emission factors for methane emission from enteric fermentation: a case study from a non-annex 1 country. Journal of national Science Foundation, Sri Lanka 44(2): 137-144.

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divya1234 · 9 months ago

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Boosting Ruminant Appetites with FLAVOFRESH

In the realm of ruminant farming, stimulating appetite is key to ensuring optimal health and productivity in livestock. Recognizing this crucial need, FLAVOFRESH emerges as a groundbreaking solution designed to invigorate ruminant appetites and revolutionize feeding practices.

FLAVOFRESH represents a paradigm shift in the approach to enhancing feed palatability. Crafted with precision and backed by scientific research, this innovative feed additive is formulated to ignite the taste buds of ruminants, compelling them to eagerly consume their feed. By infusing select ingredients renowned for their palatability-boosting properties, FLAVOFRESH transforms mundane feed into a culinary delight for livestock.

One of the hallmarks of FLAVOFRESH is its versatility. Whether administered in pellet form, incorporated into grains, or blended into Total Mixed Ration (TMR), FLAVOFRESH seamlessly integrates into existing feed formulations while preserving the nutritional integrity essential for ruminant health. This ensures that animals not only enjoy their meals but also receive the vital nutrients necessary for growth, maintenance, and reproduction.

The impact of FLAVOFRESH extends beyond mere feed consumption—it translates into tangible benefits for both farmers and their livestock. Farmers implementing FLAVOFRESH into their feeding regimens have reported notable increases in feed intake among their herds, leading to improvements in overall animal health and performance. With ruminants consuming their feed more voraciously, farmers can anticipate enhanced weight gain, heightened milk production in dairy cows, and improved fertility in breeding stock.

Furthermore, FLAVOFRESH is a testament to sustainable farming practices. By promoting greater feed consumption efficiency, FLAVOFRESH aids in reducing feed wastage, thereby minimizing the environmental footprint associated with ruminant farming operations. This aligns with the broader goal of ensuring agricultural practices are ecologically responsible and sustainable for future generations.

In essence, FLAVOFRESH transcends the conventional boundaries of feed additives, emerging as a catalyst for change in ruminant nutrition. With its ability to reignite appetites and elevate feed palatability, FLAVOFRESH empowers farmers to optimize livestock performance while fostering sustainability in agriculture. As the agricultural landscape evolves, FLAVOFRESH stands as a beacon of innovation, paving the way towards a more prosperous and sustainable future for ruminant farming.

For more information visit us:

#cattle feed #feed supplement #flavofresh

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whytefarms1 · 3 years ago

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Why Whyte Farms is Best Online Fresh Desi Ghee, Fresh Eggs Delivery

Whyte Farms is the Best Online Fresh Desi Ghee, Fresh Eggs Delivery in Delhi-NCR because here, the cows are given the highest priority ensuring that the consumer will get the best quality milk. Farm fresh organic cow milk is delivered to your doorstep within a few hours of milking.

Spread over an area of 25 acres, Whyte Farms has enough space in their barns to accommodate more than 500 cows freely with space for them to lie down.

The barns are fully equipped with giant fans and higher roofs to keep the cows happy and comfortable during the summer season. They are fed with organically grown fodder made at the farm itself. Their food is devoid of all kinds of insecticides, pesticides, and growth hormones. As a result, we are able to deliver 100% organic cow milk to homes in the Delhi-NCR region.

The cows are fed using the TMR feeding machines from Germany. TMR (Total Meal Ration) is a method of feeding the cattle that first mix all the grains, forages, protein feeds, minerals, vitamins to a specified nutrient concentration into a single feed mix. The cows get the best diet to keep them fit and healthy. Our farmers understand that if the cows are happy, they will produce the best quality milk. Not only this but our farms have been equipped with the best milking machine, named the 2X6 Herringbone parlor. One of the most advanced machines, it senses the cow’s position and records the amount of milk delivered. This information is then sent to the main computer. With the pandemic on the rise, it was a priority for us to not involve human labor as much as we can and this machine helps to milk the cows automatically.

After the milking process is over, the fresh milk is passed through the PHE pipelines and chilled to 4º c immediately to preserve it and keep the nutrients intact. This process destroys the bacteria and preserves the taste of the milk

Lastly, the milk is pasteurized and is safe to drink without the need to boil it. Our cold-chain delivery process makes sure that the milk stays good when it is delivered to your homes.

Whyte Farms is one of the finest farms in India that delivers the best quality organic cow milk, Fresh eggs, fresh desi ghee, and other dairy products within a few hours of ordering. Order Today!

#organic milk #desi cow milk #desi ghee #cow ghee #fresh eggs #farm fresh eggs #whyte farms #Cow milk

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tipsycad147 · 4 years ago

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Essex witches

Essex witches (act. 1566–1589) woodcut, 1589

(act. 1566–1589)

Marion Gibson

Essex witches (act. 1566–1589), are known from four surviving pamphlets published between 1566 and 1589 describing the lives, and in some cases deaths, of one man and thirty women who were accused of witchcraft in Essex and prosecuted under the Witchcraft Act of 1563. In this period witchcraft was punishable by hanging if a witch was convicted of killing a person, or if he or she committed a second witchcraft offence of any kind. Witches were not burnt in England, and lesser witchcraft offences were punished by imprisonment and the pillory. Because survivals of early modern Essex trial records are among the most numerous in England, and because of the higher than average number of contemporary pamphlets published on Essex cases, the county's witchcraft prosecutions have received more attention than those of most other areas and statistical analysis as well as individual biography is possible.

Early witchcraft trials, 1566–1579

Over the period covered by the pamphlets some 430 people were prosecuted for witchcraft offences in the home counties, which formed the home circuit for judicial purposes, with a peak between 1580 and 1589. Essex, one of these five counties, accounted for nearly 60 per cent of home circuit prosecutions for witchcraft and between 1570 and 1609 fifty-three Essex witches were hanged as against a total of sixty-four executions across all the home counties. This was a high proportion, even allowing for the fact that only about a quarter of the total indicted were actually found guilty and hanged. Accusations were most common in eastern and central Essex, although local episodes of witch accusation could occur anywhere. Many Essex people clearly believed strongly in witchcraft as a threat to them, as a source of healing or divining magic, or as a power which they themselves had come to possess. Women were particularly likely to be accused, often of inheriting their powers or sharing them with other female family members or friends (nearly 90 per cent of all indicted Essex witches were women), and many confessed the accusations to be true. Some may have been convinced that they could and did curse their neighbours, others said they practised only healing magic, while a third group denied all involvement. Some people seem likely—from the pattern of their narratives—to have invented confessions and denials out of mixed motives including, sometimes, a belief that producing any kind of coherent narrative would lead to clemency. Their accusers were equally likely to create an unnaturally neat fiction about the witches out of a combination of incoherent events and unverifiable beliefs about their lives. It is therefore hard to decide, or to find a reliable methodology for assessing, which elements of their stories represent factual and verifiable life events and which are retrospective rationalizations based on fantasy or fiction confabulated under pressure. Both these types of experience represent, however, a biographical reality for the pamphleteers who immortalized these Essex people.

All the villagers are shown in the pamphlets as ordinary people who have been tempted into the felony of maleficent witchcraft for a variety of reasons. In 1566 Elizabeth Frauncis (c. 1529–1579), from Hatfield Peverel, told pre-trial questioners that, aged twelve (at least twenty-five years earlier, the narrative suggests) she was given a white-spotted cat named Satan by her grandmother, Eve. She renounced God and his word and was told to give her blood to the cat. Later she asked the cat for sheep, and to procure her a rich husband. Unfortunately, when the cat prevailed upon her to have sex with the favoured man, he had not married her, and she told the cat to kill him. Fearing pregnancy, she asked the cat for help with abortifacient herbs, and then at its insistence attempted once again to win a husband by what the pamphlet labels 'fornication'. In this attempt she succeeded, but later marital unhappiness prompted her to kill the resultant child, and to lame her husband, whom trial records name as Christopher Frauncis. Her story was printed in The Examination and Confession of Certaine Wytches at Chensforde in the Countie of Essex (1566). It suggests that Elizabeth Frauncis felt guilty about sexual events in her younger life, and that, when interrogated on suspicion of witchcraft, she confessed those matters which were on her conscience, rather than the expected punishable acts of harmful magic against neighbours. Equally, the fact that one of her questioners was a churchman may mean that the focus on sin rather than crime in Frauncis's story was his rather than exclusively hers. Assize records suggest that she was not formally charged with any of the matters she confessed—the trial at Chelmsford concentrated on the bewitchment of a child, to which Frauncis pleaded guilty. She was sentenced in July to a year's imprisonment, with four pillory appearances, as the penalty for a first, non-fatal offence. In August 1572 Frauncis was tried again as a witch, for what is rightly described in the assize records as her second offence. However, the indictment had to be redrafted: when tried in March 1573 for the same offence and found guilty she escaped death (the penalty for a second offence) and was imprisoned and pilloried again (the penalty for a first offence). In April 1579, however, her luck ran out and she was tried, convicted, and hanged for killing a neighbour, Alice Poole, by witchcraft. She pleaded not guilty, but had confessed to the offence in a pre-trial examination which appears in the second Essex pamphlet A detection of damnable driftes practized by three [actually four] witches arraigned at Chelmisforde in Essex (1579). Frauncis said that she killed Poole, with the help of a dog spirit, because Poole refused to give her yeast—a far more petty motivation than the grand lusts of her first confession thirteen years before.

Agnes Waterhouse (1501/2–1566), Frauncis's neighbour and probably her sister, confessed far more conventional witchcraft offences in 1566 than she did. Waterhouse received the cat, Satan, from Frauncis in exchange for a cake, she said, and used him against neighbours who had angered her, asking him to kill hogs, a cow, and geese, to harm brewing and dairying, to kill a neighbour, and, nine years previously, her own husband. She turned the cat familiar into a toad because poverty forced her to use the wool on which he slept. In July 1566 Waterhouse pleaded guilty in court to killing William Fynee (no mention was made of the more sensational murder of her husband, or the confessed property offences) and she was hanged at Chelmsford on 29 July. She said at her death that she had been a witch for fifteen years, and added that she had always prayed in Latin. The pamphlet emphasized the illegality and ungodliness of this activity, suggesting again the influence of churchmen on some of the confessions of witches, and the thin lines between residual Catholicism, deliberate recusancy, and the practice of secret magical rites with a perceived Satanic tint.

The third witch to be tried at Chelmsford in July 1566 was Joan Waterhouse (b. 1547/8), Agnes Waterhouse's daughter. She began her pre-trial examination by denying any knowledge of witchcraft, although she said that her mother had attempted to teach her 'this art'. However, shortly afterwards she began to confess that she had tried out the familiar spirit, Satan, in her mother's absence, and used him to punish a neighbour's child, Agnes Browne, for uncharitable acts towards her. Browne is shown in The Examination and Confession as giving sensational evidence against both Joan and Agnes Waterhouse, and it seems likely that her stories played a large part in bringing both women to trial, along with Frauncis. She said that she had been 'haunted' by a black dog with an ape's face which had asked for butter, played in the milkhouse, and finally attempted to kill her with a knife which he said belonged to Agnes Waterhouse. Browne was counselled by a clergyman during her alleged experiences, rather as if she were a possession victim, and she had the backing of the pamphlet which treated her as a star witness. However, Joan Waterhouse was acquitted and Browne's credibility in court must therefore be in doubt. Other felonies and witchcraft cases at the 1566 summer assizes went unreported.

Witchcraft was usually thought to have occurred where disputes arose between victim and suspect, followed by misfortune. The second Essex pamphlet illustrates this well. It contains accusations against four women, Elizabeth Frauncis and three others. The first was Elleine Smith (d. 1579), of Maldon, tried and hanged at Chelmsford in April 1579 for killing a child. She had quarrelled with a number of people, including her stepfather, John Chaundeler, when he asked her for money which her mother had given her. Smith's mother, Alice Chaundeler, had been executed for murder by witchcraft in 1574 and her daughter was probably assumed to have inherited her witchcraft as well as her money, especially since John Chaundeler died strangely after their quarrel. Smith was also believed to have hit the child who died and sent a dog spirit to attack her, and to have attacked with a toad spirit a neighbour who refused charity to her son. Her son, as was often the case, also accused his mother of keeping familiar spirits. Margery Staunton of Wimbish, described in the same pamphlet, was refused charity by nine households and was seen to resent this—after which misfortune overtook the households. She escaped punishment because her indictment was wrongly drafted. Finally, Alice Nokes of Lambourne allegedly injured a man who stole gloves from her daughter, and attacked a horse because the ploughman would not speak to her. She was hanged for murder by witchcraft, an accusation not mentioned in the pamphlet.

Late witchcraft trials, 1579–1589

Individual and inter-household quarrels, but also the dynamics of spiralling accusations and ruthless questioning, played a major part in the biggest English witchcraft case of the period, described in W. W.'s A true and just recorde of the information, examination and confession of all the witches, taken at S. Oses in the countie of Essex (1582). In February and March 1582 Brian Darcy, an Essex JP and witch-hunter, questioned thirteen women and a man from the villages of St Osyth, Little Clacton, Thorpe, Little Oakley, and Walton and sent them for trial at Chelmsford. The process began modestly enough when a St Osyth servant of Darcy's relative Thomas Darcy, third Baron Darcy of Chiche, complained that a woman whom she had been consulting as a magical healer, Ursley Kempe (d. 1582), had killed one of her children and made herself and another child ill. Kempe confessed several attacks on villagers and accused neighbours Alice Newman, Elizabeth Bennett (d. 1582), Annis Glascock, and Alice Hunt of witchcraft. She was in turn accused by other informants, including her brother, who said that Kempe had killed his wife for calling her a whore and a witch. Kempe's illegitimate son told the magistrate that she kept spirits, and Newman was described as working in partnership with her, using the same spirits, although she refused to confess anything. Although convicted of the same three offences of murder, Kempe was hanged at Chelmsford in April 1582 while Newman was imprisoned until released by general pardon in 1588—an unusual punishment. After Brian Darcy falsely promised favour to those who confessed, Bennett pleaded guilty to keeping spirits and using them to kill her abusive neighbour and his wife, and was hanged at Chelmsford in April 1582. Glascock apparently confessed nothing, but died in prison (inquest date 11 November 1582) after being convicted of three murders and reprieved. Hunt was acquitted of murder and of killing cows, despite the evidence of her eight-year-old stepdaughter that she kept spirits. Meanwhile her sister, Margery Sammon or Barnes, confessed to the keeping of spirits and incriminated Hunt's next door neighbour, Joan Pechey, saying that she had killed John Johnson, the collector for the poor, for giving her insufficient charity. Newman was also accused (by other informants) of his murder but nobody was formally charged. Pechey refused to confess but died in prison (inquest date 11 November 1582) despite supposedly being discharged without trial. Barnes apparently evaded trial, only to be indicted for keeping spirits in 1583. She was acquitted.

Accusations were also taking place in adjacent villages. Cicely Selles and her husband, Henry Selles, of Little Clacton, were accused of witchcraft by a wealthy neighbour, Richard Ross, and by their own children. Ross also accused them of damaging property and of arson. Henry Selles was not tried, while his wife was acquitted of arson. She was, however, convicted of murdering the son of a neighbour whose daughter had also suffered mysterious illness, supposedly at her hands. Both Selleses died in gaol (inquest dates 31 January and 8 March 1583) after being tried again, with their son Robert Selles, for arson against Ross. This makes it likely that Ross was the force behind their prosecution, especially as they were also accused of, but not charged with, attacking his maid and farm, and killing a child of one of his workers (despite the reluctance of the child's mother to accuse Cicely Selles). Witchcraft accusation could be a way of expressing a more deep-seated hatred—even a feud—here. Alice Manfielde of Thorpe and 55-year-old Margaret Grevell were accused of various offences: impeding farm work by magic, arson, and murder. Manfielde, despite a fulsome confession and further incrimination of existing suspects, was charged only with arson, and was acquitted, while Grevell was acquitted of killing a man whose wife had refused her charity. Elizabeth Ewstace, aged fifty-three, was accused of murder and of causing illness in animals and humans, but was not brought to trial. In Little Oakley, Annis Herd was accused of murder by the parson of Beaumont, but, being charged only with harming animals, was acquitted. Her illegitimate daughter accused her of keeping spirits, and other neighbours described misfortunes which had struck after they refused her charity. Finally, in Walton various accusations of harming animals and causing wind damage were made against Joan Robinson, a comparatively wealthy woman, but were apparently dismissed. The prosecution petered out as accusations became less and less grave, the assize of March 1583 approached and prosecutions were surprisingly unsuccessful in a number of cases.

The desire to publish accounts of witchcraft cases did not, however, fade. In 1589 material from the pre-trial examinations of three more Essex women was published as The Apprehension and Confession of Three Notorious Witches. Joan Cunny [Cony] (c. 1508/9–1589), of Stisted, was accused of harming and killing her neighbours and causing a damaging storm. She confessed that she had learned her 'art' from a woman who had told her to make a circle on the ground and pray to Satan, at which invocation spirits would appear. She said she had done this twenty years previously, had given her soul to the spirits, taken them home and fed them, and afterwards used them to do various harmful acts. The pamphleteer said that Cunny had two daughters, Margaret and Avis, and two illegitimate grandsons. It was from one of these boys that some of the accusations against Cunny and her daughters came. Cunny was hanged at Chelmsford on 5 July 1589, while Margaret was imprisoned and Avis was sentenced to death, but was reprieved because she was pregnant. Joan Upney of Dagenham was similarly accused with her daughters. She too confessed to learning her witchcraft from a woman who had, this time, brought familiar spirits to her. This woman, named Whitecote, is probably Cecilia Glasenberye (also known as Arnold or Whitecote), a Barking woman executed for witchcraft in 1574, whose story featured in a lost pamphlet of that year and was reprinted in 1595 in A World of Wonders, a Masse of Murthers, a Covie of Cosonages. Upney blamed the spirits which Whitecote had given her for harming her neighbours, but was herself convicted of two murders and hanged. Alice Upney, presumably Upney's daughter, was discharged without trial. The pamphlet's final account is of Joan Prentice (d. 1589), who lived in the almshouse at Sible Hedingham, and confessed that she had a familiar in the shape of a ferret named Satan. She tried to resist his overtures, but let him suck her blood and then used him to harm her neighbours. She said that the ferret disobeyed her instructions to hurt a child and instead killed it, but this excuse did not save her from execution. Prentice was hanged at Chelmsford on 5 July 1589. She named two other women, Elizabeth Whale and Elizabeth Mott, whom she said used the same spirit, but they were discharged without trial.

Each ‘witch's’ story is subtly different, although there are linking themes, most of which became standard in witchcraft accusations and confessions. In some stories sexual motives meet malice to produce a potent and incredible village Medea: a woman who uses devil-inspired magic to enchant and kill in furtherance of her desires—or feels guilty because she wishes she had. In others poverty leads to begging, which, when refused, prompts designs of revenge on the uncharitable neighbour. Unneighbourly refusal to trade with the witch or less obvious economic or social injuries might equally be revenged. Some cases say more about the alleged victim than the witch: a strong imagination, mental illness, or unexplained disease, combined with naughtiness, teenage crises, or fear, produce a story of peculiar afflictions visited on the innocent by the malignant. Finally, questioners have a great influence over confessions by witches: leading questions were common, and the temptation to say what was expected in the hope of pleasing the magistrate or churchman must have been great.

There are exemplars of each of these life stories in all the pamphlets. Frauncis's sexual adventures are echoed in the fact that a number of the Essex witches had illegitimate children or were accused of causing harm to those who stood in their way sexually. In 1582 Pechey was accused of incest, while Cicely Selles's husband was alleged to have described his wife as a 'stinking whore'. The 1589 pamphleteer described Cunny and her daughters as 'living very lewdly … no better than naughty packs'. The most common story is, however, that of revenge for uncharity, or economic unneighbourliness such as theft or refusal to trade. At least two thirds of the Essex witches were involved in disputes with neighbours over such matters, and almost all had been insulted, attacked by or had quarrelled abusively with alleged victims. Most were relatively poor; where occupations are known, Henry Selles was an agricultural labourer, Sammon a servant, Bennett the wife of a husbandman, Hunt a mason's wife, and Glascock married to a sawyer. Many of the women were apparently single or widowed (although the convenient legal definition 'spinster' can be misleading here), and the witches accused in these pamphlets are almost exclusively female, mirroring (if exaggerating) the national male : female percentages, where 90 per cent of suspects might be expected to be women.

Sources

The examination and confession of certaine wytches at Chensforde in the countie of Essex (1566)

A detection of damnable driftes practized by three witches arraigned at Chelmisforde in Essex (1579)

W. W., A true and just recorde of the information, examination and confession of all the witches, taken at S. Oses in the countie of Essex (1582)

The apprehension and confession of three notorious witches (1589)

J. S. Cockburn, Calendar of assize records: Essex indictments, Elizabeth I (1978)

J. Sharpe, Instruments of darkness: witchcraft in England 1550–1750 (1996)

A. Macfarlane, Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England: a regional and comparative study (1970)

M. Gibson, Early modern witches: witchcraft cases in contemporary writing (2000)

B. Rosen, Witchcraft in England, 1558–1618 (1991)

M. Gibson, Reading witchcraft: stories of early English witches (1999)

J. S. Cockburn, Calendar of assize records: introduction (1985)

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timclymer · 5 years ago

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Everything You Need to Know About Cattle Farming

The most important thing that anybody should know about anything about cattle farming is that no farm or ranch is the same. No one farm follows the production practices of another, and no one producer manages his or her cattle the same way as the next one does. If you want to know about everything involved with cattle farming, get to know the basics first, what makes every farm click and everything else in between before anything else. Dairy farming or beef farming, it doesn’t matter what, there are certain things within those enterprises that make them run, from the feed fed to the cattle and the finances needed to run the farm to the cattle themselves.

It’s a lot of Hard Work …

Anybody would be a fool if they said raising cattle was easy. You have to be a veterinarian, an accountant, a mechanic, a carpenter, a plumber, a salesperson, an electrician and everything else in between to manage a farm. You have machinery, buildings, fences, and handling facilities to maintain, repair – even replace if it’s absolutely necessary – cattle waterers to fix if they freeze over in the dead of winter or if they quit working on you all of a sudden, hay to haul, finances to keep on top of (loans, utility bills and taxes to pay), fences to maintain and repair, the list keeps going on. You will experience periods of fatigue during times when the farm needs you the most – be it mental or physical fatigue. Your muscles will ache, your head will ache, and there will be times when you wonder why in the heck did you get into the cattle business in the first place!

It can be Life Threatening, Dangerous Work …

When you experience fatigue or get complacent around machinery or livestock this can result in serious injuries or even death. It is so easy to get caught when you least expect it, and by the time you realize you’re caught it’s often too late. It can be as simple as forgetting to never step over a running PTO shaft, never turn your back on a seemingly docile bull, cut with your knife away from you, things like that. The best thing to ensure your survival and to keep all your limbs intact is to always be aware of your surroundings, know if and when you’re feeling tired, never wear loose clothing around running machinery, and show the utmost respect to all bulls and new momma cows with their new calves. There is a whole list of farm-safety things I could lay out in this article, but I fear it will only take up more space than I intend and cause me to severely veer off track.

Regardless, bulls and cows must be respected and often not trusted either, no matter if you’re working or managing a dairy or beef farm. Dairy bulls are especially dangerous and ones to never turn your back on. Beef bulls can be just as bad: at first they may seem quite gentle and docile, but they can turn on you with the slightest provocation. This is a concern if you haven’t established dominance with them and if they don’t respect you and your space. Hormones can play a large factor in a bull’s aggressiveness. If a bull sees you as competition for his harem, he will come after you. If not, and sees you as just a two-legged human and not a two-legged bovine, then you should be safe, but don’t take my word for it because who knows what goes through a bull’s mind during breeding season!

Hormones are also a big factor in aggressiveness in cows. A cow’s initial instincts when that calf hits the ground is for her to nurture, suckle and protect it with her life. This means that no other animal should come within ten yards (some more, some less) of her baby without her explicit permission !! To some she can attack without warning, but I can say I doubt that – they do give you a warning to stay away if you know what to look for. A curled lip, that cold gleam in her eye, head shaking, that sort of thing are body language signs to look for when she’s telling you to stay away. Bulls also have their way of communicating that they’re not tolerant of your presence too: showing their sides, arching their neck showing their size, head shaking, not acknowledging your presence at all (in other words, ignoring you) when you’re in the pen with them, etc. These are all warning signs to either get out, or be prepared to stand your ground and make it known that you don’t tolerate their behavior towards you. Then be prepared to go through with your escape plan, if you have one.

It Takes Knowing a bit of Bovine Psychology

When raising cattle, you really have to know a fair bit about what cattle are telling you in order to tell if they’re just being friendly, a nuisance, a threat, or a potential cull. Cattle that acknowledge your presence, and come up to you but keep their respective distance from you (except if you invite them) are friendly. Some of the friendly ones can also be the ones that don’t ignore you but go back to what they were doing before you disrupted them can also be considered friendly. Even those that come running towards you when they see you – can be considered friendly, especially if you know them well enough to know when they come running like that it’s to get fed, and not as to create a stampede! Cattle that get high-strung, high-headed and make a run for it every time you are around are ones that should be culled – cattle should keep their respective distance from you, but not go so far as to try jumping over the fence to get away from you! Sometimes these types of animals can be trained to be calmer around people, but there are times when this can be more vain than rewarding. Some cattle just can’t be tamed and remain “wild.”

Breeding, Calving, Weaning, Growing …

Though not applicable to backgrounding / stockering and feedlot operations, knowing the basics about breeding, calving and weaning is important. The gestation period of a cow or heifer averages around 285 days or just over 9 months. A cow or heifer as a 50% chance of giving birth to a bull calf or heifer calf when not bred via sexed semen (artificial insemination or natural service). Calves on cows can be weaned when they are around 6 to 10 months old. Dairy calves are taken away from their dams a day or two (sometimes less) after birth, but aren’t weaned off the bottle until they’re around 3 to 4 months old. Estrous period for cows and heifers is 21 days long and estrus or heat lasts 18 to 24 hours long. Majority of heifers are ready to be bred by the time they are around 15 months old. A bull is ready to breed by the time he’s 12 months of age. Age of maturity for most cattle is around 3 to 4 years of age.

Calving and breeding periods will coincide, and the optimum length should be around 45 to 60 days. There is plenty of debate what time of year it is best to calve out cows, however a cow can be bred – and thus calve – at any time of the year. A cow can be bred either naturally – via a bull – or artificially – called artificial insemination via AI gun and semen straw.

Once the calf comes, the milk follows. The first milk a cow produces for her calf is called colostrum. After 48 hours she starts producing “normal” milk. Her highest nutritional requirements occur from late pregnancy to the third month of lactation. Her lowest is when she is dry and in her second trimester of pregnancy. Calves, once weaned, though, have different nutritional requirements – as they get older, protein requirements decrease.

Know What to Feed Them

Not all ranches and farms feed their cattle the same thing. This is probably where the greatest variations in how cattle are raised begins, and something which I can only cover briefly here. Essentially there are five types of feedstuffs that are fed to cattle: hay, silage, grain, alternative feeds, and pasture. The latter isn’t exactly fed to cattle, but rather cattle are set to feed themselves. However, with the former four, each farm and ranch varies in how much and what of each is fed to their animals.

All dairy farms need to feed their dairy cows a mixed ration – called a TMR or Total Mixed Ration – of high-quality hay, silage and grain to meet their cows’ nutritional requirements in protein, energy, calcium and phosphorus levels. The majority of hay fed to dairy cattle is comprised of alfalfa or clover and grasses like orchard grass and timothy. Silage – which is chopped up and fermented feed – is often of corn, since it has higher nutritional quality than barley or wheat. The grain portion of the TMR ration can be corn, barley or wheat, depending on what is more suitably grown in the area where the dairy farm is located.

As for beef farms, rations for cattle varies much more greatly than on your average dairy farms. There are three main enterprises involved in beef farming: cow-calf, backgrounding / stocker, and feedlot. The lowest-quality rations are given to cow-calf operations, and the highest-quality to feedlots. Cows on cow-calf operations often have no problem subsisting off of grass and hay, though some producers like to feed them grain and / or silage during the winter months. Backgrounding / stocker operations need to feed their calves so that they grow, so pasture, silage and good-quality hay is often fed. Feedlots finish cattle for slaughter, so an 85% grain-based “hot” ration is needed. The other 15% is comprised of roughage like silage.

All cattle need to be fed clean water and have access to mineral at all times. Beef producers feed their mineral to their cattle free-choice, sometimes mixed in with the feed. Dairy producers tend to have these minerals mixed in with the feed.

Where Are You Getting Your Feed From?

That’s a big question to ask yourself if you intend on starting your own cattle farm. Basically you have two choices: Make your own, or purchase it. If you make your own, you need your own equipment and the time to make the feed. You may need the extra labor if it’s required, depending on what type of feed you’re making. Making your own feed may bite into your profits because it means more money spent on fuel and maintenance / repair costs. Purchasing feed has its risks too. Though you don’t near half the machinery required for making your own feed, you still need a place to store it and risk the feed you’re getting to be not as good quality feed as you want it to be. There may be health risks associated with the feed you purchase – the hay you get may have bits of metal or garbage in it, or the feed you purchased from your feed store may be contaminated with something that will kill your animals.

Machinery Needed On a Cattle Farm

You can literally have as little as only a couple pieces of machinery to as many as to make any agricultural machinery retailer business proud. I’ve known a couple cattle producers that only have a few pieces of equipment: a hay-hauler truck, a livestock trailer, and a four-wheeler ATV. A lot of other producers can get by just fine with a good tractor with a front-end loader, a baler, haybine or mower, a good truck, a livestock trailer, and the choice between using the four-wheeler ATV (I prefer to call a “quad”) or a good cow horse. Many other cattle farmers need to have a lot more machinery than that: two to three tractors, a combine-harvester, several pieces of tillage machinery (disc, plow, cultivator, flexi-coil harrows, harrows, etc.), a few swathers , a few grain trucks, several grain augers, a forage harvester, a baler, a haybine, the list goes on. What type and how much of machinery you think you need to have (try not to think of it as “want”) on your cattle farm will affect your bottom line and how you raise your animals.

Think of it this way: If you want to graze your cattle on pasture all year round, there will be a point in time where you will realize that the machinery you want isn’t necessarily the same pieces of machinery you will need !!

Your Finances

Every producer of every cattle farm should take account of their finances – purchases, loans, utility bills, fuel bills, fertilizer bills, feed purchases, veterinary bills, repair / maintenance payments, rent payments / income, cattle sales, feed sales, and other things that affect the operations of your farm. From there you can do the evaluation to see if you are losing money, just breaking even or actually making a little money from your farm. It can also tell you where you are weakest or strongest, and what choices you should consider if you wish to increase income levels to your business. Making and maintaining a business plan can help a lot here too.

Sheltering Your Cattle

Shelter isn’t as big an importance, though a simple lean-to shed or a stand of trees will suffice for most. Dairy cattle need to be kept confined to a barn during the winter months. This may not be so in areas where they don’t experience as extreme, frigid or snowy winters as much of North America has. If they don’t have much shelter, they need to compensate for the lack of warmth by eating more feed so that they can stay warm. This is also true with thin beef cows.

Herd Health and Signs of Illness or Disease

Most herds need to keep up to date with their vaccinations every year, depending on the age and gender of the animals as well as where you are farming them. In most areas of the USA and Canada, vaccinating for diseases such as Blackleg (with Clostridia sp. Related bacteria), Bovine Viral Diarrhea, Bovine Respiratory Disease Virus complex and others is very important. Leptospirosis vaccinations for heifers and trichomoniasis vaccinations for young bulls are also important for a breeding herd. Some areas require vaccinations against Anthrax as well. Check with your local large-animal veterinarian for what types of diseases you need to vaccinate your animals for.

Check your herd regularly for signs of illness or disease. The most obvious symptoms I’ve found with the cattle we had were listlessness or lethargic activity – calves that normally should be interested in food are not, they are either slow to get up or wanting to lay down and rest instead of get up and eat. Other signs include lameness, dull eyes, loss of body condition, hairless patches, kicking at the belly, coughing, snotty nose, too many abortions in your herd to be considered normal, or anything unusual about the animal’s behavior or parts of its anatomy, ranging from the udder or scrotum to the eyes. Be cautious that one symptom you see may be a sign of a much bigger problem.

Where You Get Livestock, You Will Get Deadstock

As the Circle of Life goes around and around, you cannot expect any one of your animals, young and old alike, to live forever. You will get cattle that will die on you, unexpectedly or otherwise. That is just something to expect on every livestock farm or ranch. It is hard for every producer to have an animal die on them, but that’s just a part of life. Many people who are generations removed from farm life do not understand this, but as someone who wants to get into cattle or any kind of livestock business this is a hard fact you must learn or else you’re not going to last very long in it .

What you do with those dead animals depends on local laws. Some ranches are so big and vast that it’s no problem to drag a carcass out to the middle of a pasture and let the scavengers take care of it. Other areas require such carcasses to be immediately buried or burned or have a livestock-rendering truck come to take them away for you. Some people who have grown attached to a particular cow or bull, prized or not, choose to bury that animal just like someone would bury a pet dog or cat that was a part of the family for years.

There may have been a few things that I missed in describing “ everything about cattle farming” because there are many other things I have not covered that are involved with not just with cattle farming itself, but the actual animals, the feed and machinery and many other little things that make a cattle farm tick. I hope that the basics covered above give you some idea what to expect in running a cattle farm.

Source by Karin L.

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