WE do not have natural pasture suitable for dairying, so dairy stocks, mostly buffaloes, rely on cultivated forage for green feed. A large number of dairy stocks are kept in and around cities and feed have to be brought in.
Most dairy animals are in and around intensively cultivated and irrigated regions, except for some rain-fed areas such as Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Mirpur.
There is no land for grazing, so animals are kept at homestead and stall-fed on cultivated forage, crop residues, and concentrates.
Forage quality can be defined as the extent to which it has the potential to produce a desired animal response.
The general characteristics of forages are as follows:
Bulk: Bulk refers to the forage particle's unit of weight and is influenced by the length and density of forage particle size. This feature determines how long forages stay in the rumen. Intake may be limited when a ration is too bulky.
High fibre: Usually forages contain more than 30 per cent fibre (neutral detergent fibre). In general, the higher the fibre in forage, the lower the energy content of the forage.
Protein: Forages vary in protein content. Depending on the stage of maturity, legumes may contain 15 per cent to 23 per cent crude protein; grasses typically contain eight to 18 per cent crude protein (depending on the level of fertilisation); crop residues, such as straw, may have only three to four per cent crude protein.
Minerals: Generally, forages are higher in calcium, potassium and trace minerals than most concentrates. Phosphorus in forages is usually low compared to the animal need.
Vitamins: Forages are higher in fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K) than most concentrates. Legumes are good sources of vitamin B.
Fodder is a traditional crop in Pakistan. In the irrigated tracts it is usually grown under basin irrigation which makes mechanical harvesting very difficult, so forages are usually cut by sickle; on barani lands the fields are usually levelled terraces.
Pakistan has a total cropped area of 22.54 mha. But only 2.35 mha area is under fodder crops. Due to increased demand, improved forage crops such as multi-cut oats, berseem, lucerne, sorghum- sudan grass hybrids, maize and millet have been developed. These have become very popular in irrigated areas such as Kasur, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Sargodha, and Renala Khurd (Punjab), Nowshera, Charsada, Mardan, and Peshawar (North West Frontier Province), and Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Halla, and Nawabshah in Sindh, for sale to peri-urban dairies.
Most dairy animals are reared in the intensively cultivated irrigated plains with no fallow or natural pasture and are kept around the homesteads and stall-fed on forages, crop residues and some concentrates. The vast irrigated tracts of the Punjab, the North West Frontier Province and Sindh, which are the major source of forage for urban dairies, are at low altitude with a sub-tropical monsoon climate and hot summers. Cash crops such as wheat, cotton, sugar cane, maize, rice, and forage crops like sorghum- sudan grass hybrids, lucerne, berseem, and oats are commonly grown. These areas supply the grain and forage requirements of urban dairies. Due to suitable temperatures and availability of irrigation, green forage is produced year-round.
Improved forage varieties and technology have been slow to reach the small scale farms which account for the bulk of forage production; seed production has lagged behind plant breeding and introductions. Medium scale on-farm work in the late 1980s demonstrated that yields can be raised two to three-fold by using available improved varieties and appropriate agronomic techniques. In an area where land and irrigation are the major limiting factors to agricultural production, intensification is the only way to meet the country’s need.
Maize (Zea mays) is a very important fodder; in the barani tracts it is grown where soil and moisture conditions are deemed suitable for green feed or dried fodder. Since considerable areas of maize are used for green cobs, as vegetables, their green residues contribute to the forage pool. Maize is grown basically for grains and is at the same time a popular fodder for livestock. The cultivation of maize crop for purpose of fodder in irrigated areas starts in April and continued till August/September. Akbar, Neelum, Sadaf, U.M-81 and LZ-31 are high yielding varieties. Maize stalks (stovers) are extensively used for winter feeding in rainy areas. The maize fodder may well be used as silage.
Sorghum is a widely grown summer fodder. The crop is cultivated for fodder purposes from March to August. Among the high yielding varieties Hegari, J. S-263 and JS-88 are sweet in taste and are quite palatable to animals. In rainfed areas the fodder is used for conversion into hay. Sadabahar is produced by crossing sorghum with sudan grass. This is a multicut summer fodder sown in February to March. Its leakiness makes it very palatable to animals. The fodder is highly productive and yields 60 to 70 tones per hectare green matter between four to six cuts. Sadabahar is also important because of its availability during feed shortage period (May and June).
Mineral fertilisers play a major role towards improving forage quality as well as yields but main constraint in achieving proven crop potential is imbalanced use of fertilisers, particularly low P use as compared to N and ignoring K application due to the general consensus that soils of Pakistan contain sufficient amounts of potassium. At national level total consumption of nutrients (N-P-K) per hectare of gross cropped area is 162 Kg ha-1. Reasons for low use of fertilisers are attributed to high prices, lack of promotional activities and reduced fertiliser availability during peak demand periods (NFDC, 2006), So it is a dire need to raise the fodder production by balanced fertilisation to sustain our dairy industry.
WE do not have natural pasture suitable for dairying, so dairy stocks, mostly buffaloes, rely on cultivated forage for green feed. A large number of dairy stocks are kept in and around cities and feed have to be brought in.
