Tropical Dairy Farming: Feeding Management for Small Holder Dairy Farmers in the Humid Tropics
By John Moran
Tropical Dairy Farming: Feeding Management for Small Holder Dairy Farmers in the Humid Tropics PDF is a manual designed for use by dairy production advisors working in tropical areas, especially in South-East Asia. It aims to increase the productivity of small holder dairy farmers in the humid tropics by improving the feeding management of their livestock. It shows how to provide dairy cows with cost-effective feeds that match small holder farming systems and discusses the major obstacles to improving feeding management in the humid tropics.
The author shows the benefits and drawbacks of various feed components and the calculation of balanced diets based mainly on forages combined with some supplementary feeding. Diseases and problems associated with unbalanced diets are also covered, as well as important information on growing and conserving quality forages as silage.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Tropical dairy systems
Small holder dairying
What is in feeds?
How the rumen works
Nutrient requirements of dairy cows
How feed requirements change during lactation
Growing quality forages
Making quality silage
Supplements for milking cows
Milk responses to supplements
Formulating a diet
Problems with unbalanced diets
Diet and milk production
Nutrition and fertility
Nutrition and young stock
Economics of milk production
Body condition scoring
Overcoming environmental constraints to cow performance
Future developments in feeding management in the humid tropics
