Milk Production In Dry Zone - Sunil Gamage 1xs1q

SMART INVESTMENTS FOR RAPID AND SUSTAINABLE MILK PRODUCTION IN DRY ZONE D.V.S. de S Gamage Former Deputy Director, Veterinary Research Institute – Sri Lanka Member – National Committee on Livestock, Aquaculture, and Fisheries – Sri Lanka Council for Agriculture Research Policy

1. Introduction 1.1 This report consist information derived from two field surveys, the first include collection of secondary data from central and provincial government and private sector. Whereas, the second field survey was to collect data from the farming community, grass root level service providers, input suppliers and marketing agents. Finally the intervention approaches were developed utilizing above data and discussed in detail with specialists from respective areas and reviewed and developed a project for result-oriented implementation that could double the milk production in Dry Zone within three years. 1.2 The project places priority on ruminant related products especially for milk considering the importance given in National Development Plan. 1.3 The farming system in the Dry Zone that could produce 61% of the total national milk production and 65% of the ruminant meat, despite least possible financial and infrastructure made available during the past several decades is the major strength. Furthermore, unlike the crop production sector, only a single subsidy is given by the government in the form of the extension service. This independence from government subsidies too can be considered as a major strength. 1.4 However, the weaknesses related to low achievements of realization in maximum potential of milk in the Dry Zone have been identified in prior studies, but the reasons for it have not been clearly established. Therefore, the approaches have been taken in this study to clearly identify the root causes of the following issues in view of accomplishing the expected output of the proposed project. 1.4.1

The identification of a very big seasonal variation in production and collection.

1.4.2

Consumer regard it unsuitable to consume liquid milk, as it can be a public health risk due to a range of shortfalls in the milk chain.

1.4.3

Cattle feed system is constrained with non-availability of arable land, non-utilization of grazing land and non-availability of irrigation water.

1.4.4

The increase of the crossbred population proportion has created a shortfall in cattle feed. Inadequate feeding for crossbreds in the Dry Zone can be compared to a Mercedes Benz running on Kerosene oil.

1.4.5

Most farmers have lost confidence in artificial breeding due to Inadequacies in the current crossbreeding program. Hence, over eighty percent of the crossbred cattle are mated with scrap bulls with poor production capabilities.

1.4.6

Non-availability of systems to utilize cattle effluent efficiently and effectively.

1.4.7

Major gap between good practices and current practices in the production, supply and marketing chains.

1.4.8

Lack of extension services.

1.5 The opportunity of developing Dry Zone livestock sector will initiate a process of reducing the proportion of rural sector in agriculture employment. However, those coming out of agriculture will





be utilized in employment linked to agriculture. Furthermore, increase in livestock farm sizes can bring in more opportunities to the rural farming communities. 1.6 Threats to the developed Dry Zone livestock sector is poor transfer of technology required with such development. However, current attitude towards the livestock sector can be considered a major threat in moving forward in milk production endeavor. 2. Objectives, Method, and Period 2.1 Objectives: The objective of the current document is to include only the interventions to achieve self-sufficiency in milk production by 2020. National Plan and Interventions planned in this project for milk production is addressed in three (3) areas in the National Policy document. They are, • Utilization of crop residue by ruminants, function of cattle effluent in energy field and to replace soil nutrients, addresses the land use factor in carbon mitigation. • In addition to this, use of crop residue to produce ruminant meat and milk increases water efficiency of irrigated water. • Finally, quoting from the document “ The main policy objectives of the livestock sector are to achieve a higher level of self’-reliance in milk and livestock produce, provide them to consumers at an affordable price for improving their nutritional status and tapping its potential for creation of employment”. These interventions will improve the efficiency of natural resources (which are limited) and narrow huge gaps between attainable and actually attained efficiency with existing technologies unused for ruminant production, however, being utilized in other areas of production. 3

Present Conditions and Issues in the Survey Areas

3.1 Crop cultivation is their main farming activity of almost all farmers rearing livestock. 3.2 Livestock is their only insurance for crop failure due to drought, floods, market price fluctuations and during civil unrest. 3.3 Furthermore, livestock is considered for its food security aspects too. 3.4 Dry Zone produces 61% of the total national milk production without much financial outlay and technical intervention by the government and / or private sector as compared to the Wet Zone during the past two to three decades. 3.5 Rapid crossbreeding simultaneously increasing the availability of sufficient feed will address the issues of growth in milk supply and also keeping milk prices at an affordable level. However, increase in liquid milk consumption could only be achieved through the enhancement in the quality of fresh milk. Most fresh milk consumed by public derives from the informal sector and they boil milk before use, hence there is a minimal public health risk contrary to the popular belief. However, this distrust can directly affect the sale of milk. For that reason, it will be beneficial to the fresh milk trade to take steps to improve milk quality at different levels of the milk marketing chain 3.6 Furthermore the Dry Zone provides a sizable proportion (65%) of ruminant meat through its very large indigenous cattle and goat population. These are animals with an adult body weight of 150180kg and 20-25kg in cattle and goat respectively. Hence, through crossbreeding a proportion of these animals, on the one hand more meat could be supplied as the crossbred population will have



an adult body weight of 300-350kg in cattle and 25-30 kg in goats, and on the other a sustainable conservation of manageable indigenous population could be a necessity. 3.7 Furthermore, Dry Zone supplies 64% and 66% of cattle and goat meat respectively without much financial outlay and technical intervention by the government or private sector as compared to the Wet Zone. This is only the legally slaughtered meat supply derived from Census and Statistics data. 3.8 Dry Zone meat production (kg) Meat Total Meat from weight (kg) slaughtered Cattle 18,029,194 Goat 970,226 (Ref: Sunil Gamage 2012)

Meat from Sold to other Dry zone areas 5,750,352 5,787,007 616,038 23,835

Total Meat Percent from from DZ Dry Zone 11,537,359 64.0% 639,873 66.0%

3.9 Livestock sector hardly get any subsidies as compared to the crop sector that receives subsidies in the form of fertilizer, irrigation water, marketing information (HARTI), market (Dedicated Economic Centers), seed and planting material supply, and extension service subsidy which s to between 6 to 10% of the national GDP. 3.10 The livestock sector is not dependent on Government subsidies but receives only the extension service as a subsidy can be considered the Cinderella of the Agriculture sector. 3.11 The livestock area consists of cattle, buffalo, goat, swine, broiler and layer chicken, and a sizable population of native chickens, but cattle rearing is the major income provider. 3.12 Livestock sector enterprises in Sri Lanka includes the Dairy sector – cattle, buffalo and goat, Meat sector – includes Monogastric (broiler, quail, turkey, and swine) and Ruminant (goat and beef), and the Egg sector – predominantly chicken, and also quail and duck. 3.13 Even though monogastrics are considered better converters of feed to animal protein, they not only compete for human edible food but also the cost of producing monogastric meat has increased due to global demand for these feed stuff, mainly maize and soybean. 3.14 Milk production is predominantly from cattle, Milk from goat is an area yet to be explored in Dry 1 Zone. Even though buffalo rearing was the first form of livestock keeping in Sri Lanka, the buffalo sector growth is hindered by the fact that male buffalo has no economical value. The use of male buffalo, used for draft in paddy cultivation, is made obsolete by the introduction of mechanization. 3.15 Farming System: Theme is to transform the no-growth context (extensive - subsistence level) cattle farming to the growth context (Intensive and Semi-intensive livestock management sectors) cattle farming and finally to the post-growth ( Consumer – food safety) context. 3.15.1 The crop cultivating farmers are busy during the cultivation season, and as a consequence they neglect feeding cattle. 3.15.2 The production and collection show a very big seasonal variation that has been identified in prior studies, but the reason/s for it has not been clearly established. Therefore, the approaches taken in earlier projects have failed to accomplish the expected output. However, this study was able to pin point the reasons of such fluctuations, and therefore, approaches such as a rapid increase of the crossbred population proportion and augmenting the availability of feed

1

throughout the year are interventions ed by specialists. Siriweera W.I., Role of Draught Buffalo in Rural Sri Lanka. Draught Animals in Rural Development. Proceedings of an International Research Symposium, Cipanas, Indonesia, 3-7 July 1989. Eds D.Hoffman, J.Nari and R.J.Petheram.





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3.15.3 Soil Moisture and Milk Production (Milco data from 2003 to 2009)

190 180



170



mm / 60 cm



16% Very dry no rain - no grass but ... more milk

Plenty of grass with more rain but ... less milk

160

14% 12% 10%

150

8%

140

6%

130 120

4%



110

2%



100

0%



Wk 40 Wk 42 Wk 44 Wk 46 Wk 48 Wk 50 Wk 52 Wk 2 Wk 4 Wk 6 Wk 8 Wk 10 Wk 12 Wk 14 Wk 16 Wk 18 Wk 20 Wk 22 Wk 24 Wk 26 Wk 28 Wk 30 Wk 32 Wk 34 Wk 36 Wk 38



EP Percent Monthly Milk Collec[on

Soil Moisture in Root area in Dry Zone

(Ref: Sunil Gamage 2012)



3.15.4 Feeding calendar of livestock in the Dry Zone Month Land Activity

Oct

Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr Maha - 100% cultivable land Rice planting and growing Rice Harvest

Cattle movem ent

Village

Grazing area

Restricted grazing crop land

Migration to inaccessible / marginal lands

Stubble consumption in overgrazed pasture land

Residue usage

May

June Jul Aug Sep Yala - 55% cultivable land Rice planting and growing Rice harvest

Village

Grazing in uncultivated moist crop land

Crop Grass and fodder Crop residue residue residue wasted in crop wasted wasted cultivation area Weeks 40-43 44-47 48-52 1-4 5-8 9-12 13-17 (Ref: Sunil Gamage 2012)

Restricted grazing in uncultivated dry crop land Grazing in uncultivated dry crop land and water shortage

Restricted grazing crop land

Crop residue Depleted crop Crop residue available for residue wasted consumption 18-21 22-25 26-30 31-34 35-39

3.15.5 The bulk of livestock feed resources comes from grazing poor quality annual and perennial grasses, crop residue on cropping area during the off-season and overgrazed and rapidly depleting pasture land during the cropping season. The intensive and semi intensive livestock farmers, they too graze their cattle tethered in the cropping season. 3.15.6 Furthermore, during this period most animals were restricted in scrub land with very little feed resources and only a third of milk is produced and collected. A proportion of 86.1% can be estimated from the total national shortfall due to fluctuation losses occurring in the dry zone, that is responsible for 60% of the national milk production. If feed resources are available during the cropping season this loss could have been averted. During the cropping season only a third of milk is produced and collected, that too is mostly from the intensive and semi-intensive farms. 3.15.7 Livestock production in the Dry Zone a subsistence level farming activity with very low attraction to the younger generation. However, have the potential to make a great impact.

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BVR Punyawardena (1998) Assessment of growing seasons characteristics in the Dry zone of Sri Lanka based on stochastic simulation of rainfall and soil water status. PhD Thesis. Lincoln University. New Zealand.





3.16 Feeds and Feeding: Theme is to establish off-farm rural employment linked to agriculture by converting underutilized agricultural by products or crop residue to high quality human food in demand 3.16.1 To equalize the seasonal gap in the availability of the feed, the project enhances the production of feed made of agriculture by-products which is available at the end of the rainy season and preserves them for feed during dry season. Crop by-products such as straw is already available in large quantities are underutilized or not made use. A combined strategy for milk production and staple crop (rice) productivity growth exploits the close linkage between the two sectors and would have the strongest income multipliers and entrepreneurial development activities. Rice is the predominant crop in Sri Lanka, especially in the Dry Zone where just over 650,000 hectares are grown. Rice cultivation yields 8.75 metric tons of Dry Matter per hectare annually as livestock edible biomass. This contributes to about 5.53 million tons of paddy straw and this amount is almost 50% of the total production of crop residue annually. However, commercial utilization of paddy straw can only be promoted as a good feed resource for ruminants by densifying to facilitate handling in to, standard bales, high compaction bales, super high density bales, cubes, and pellets as the bulkiness of paddy straw dictates this process. 3.16.2 Total availability of dry matter (including rice straw and other crop residue) is 5.839 million metric tons, and the total demand for milking animals only is 1.406 million metric tons. 3.16.3 Availability of Crop residue Dry zone paddy Dry matter per ha Utilized for soil cultivation (ha) (M.tons) improvement (%) Maha 650,000 8.75 50% Yala 325,000 8.75 35% Other Crop residue – Maize, cowpea, black gram, sweet potato etc Availability Rice straw

Available for animal feed (M.tons) 4.38 3.06 Million M tons

Total availability (M.tons) 2,843,750 995,313 3,839,063 2,000,000 5,839,063 5.839

(Ref: Sunil Gamage 2012)

3.16.4 Increasing competition for arable land by monogastrics, required to produce human food. 3.16.5 Demand for crop reside by milking cows Dry Zone Cattle Buffalo

Livestock number 928,070 277,700

Number of Cows 464,035 138,850

Total Body Weight (Kg) - Cows 122,969,275 36,795,250 Demand

Total Animal Units 491,877 147,181 Million M tons

Total annual DM (Mtons) 1,082,130 323,798 1,405,928 1.406

(Ref: Sunil Gamage 2012)

3.16.6 Most of the meat consumed in Sri Lanka is from monogastrics – broiler and swine. This has resulted in a faster growth in this sector during the past three decades. Even though monogastrics are considered better converters of feed to animal protein, they not only compete for human edible food but also the cost of producing monogastrics meat has increased due to global demand for these feed stuff, mainly maize and soybean.





3.16.7 Conversely, ruminants maintained on crop residue do not compete for human edible food, arable land utilized for human food, irrigated water utilized for human food production and time of extension staff in human edible food production. 3.16.8 Land use – Dry Zone dry matter availability No. 1

Category Paddy

Area (Sq. Km) 6,529

Hectares

3,250 500 1200 274 14,507 210 8,866 4,783 45,361

2 3 4

Un-irrigated highland Villus Herbage from grazing land 5 Grassland 6 Forest 7 Sand 8 Scrub 9 Other 10 Other field crop residue Total Ref: Sunil Gamage 2012



652,900

Dry Matter availability (M. tons) 5,712,875

% Usage possible 50%

DM availability (M.tons) 3,839,063

325,000 50,000 120,000

325,000 200,000 120,000

40% 30% 80%

130,000 60,000 96,000

27,400 1,450,700 21,000 886,600 478,300 4,536,100

27,400 5,802,800 - 1,329,900 - 13,517,975

60% 0% 0% 20% 0%

16,440 - - 265,980 - 2,000,000 6,407,483











3.16.9 Dry matter requirement in Dry Zone Dry Zone herd composition Milk cows Cattle

Bulls Heifers Calves Milk cows

Buffalo

Goats

Bulls Heifers Calves Adult Yearlings Kids

Milking Dry Milking Dry

Total Body weight Kg 231,741 300 91,323 300 54,223 350 252,385 225 283,083 125 60,768 400 13,773 400 10,828 450 69,387 275 64,203 175 148,250 30 64,129 15 12,073 8

Total body weight (Kg) 69,522,380 27,396,969 18,978,215 56,786,559 35,385,416 24,307,246 5,509,006 4,872,644 19,081,525 11,235,509 4,447,510 961,929 96,584

Ref: Iwami Orita and Sunil Gamage 2012

• • • • • •

The total body weight is 278,581,492 kg. Total Animal Unit is 250 kg. Dry Zone TAU number is 1,114,326 Body maintenance only the Dry Matter requirement per TAU per annum is 2.2 metric tons. Total Dry Matter requirement for body maintenance only is 2,451,517 metric tons. This is 38.3% of the Dry Matter availability in the Dry Zone, hence other physiological requirements such as growth, breeding, and milk production can easily be fulfilled by the total availability (shown in 3.15.11).

3.16.10 The gap between supply and demand of Dry Matter (DM) and TDN (31%) and Crude Protein (58%) due to low availability of good quality roughages to ruminants. 3.17 Environment Pollution: Theme is to reduce emission of green house gas and to prevent loss of plant nutrients 3.17.1 Open burning of crop residue, especially paddy straw following grain harvest is practiced in Sri Lanka for its cost-effective method of disposing residue, convenience, and also for mitigating rice diseases and weeds in succeeding crop cycle.





3.17.2 However, biomass burning has drawn global concerns and it leads to, release of particulates causing human health problems, emission of greenhouse gas such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide causing global warming, loss of plant nutrients such as N,P, K and S, adverse impact on soil properties, wastage of valuable carbon and energy rich residues and finally depriving livestock sufficient dry matter intake.( Mahinda Chintana – Vision for the Future. Chapter 7.1 Environment page 156). 3.17.3 Biomass burning is one of the noteworthy global cause of atmospheric aerosols and trace gas emissions, which have a main influence on climate and human health. The quantity released by this activity alone has been estimated by several research groups. “ Average annual biomass burning emissions as calculated by our model 3 were 2.5 PgC year -1 over the 1997 – 2004 period. The dominant contributors were Africa (49%), South America (13%), Equatorial Asia (11%), 4

boreal region (9%), and Australia (6%)” (van der Werf et al 2006) 3.18 Crossbreeding: The Theme is rapid increase in crossbred cattle population 3.18.1 The Dry Zone has more of the local or indigenous type cattle, these are acclimatized to the harsh dry condition. They could withstand shortages of feed up to 75% of regular feed intake. They are the main supply of meat and also is the foundation stock for crossbreeding with Indian types prior to introducing European blood. The cattle population crosses shown below. 3.18.2 Crossbred cattle population Type DZ – N,NWP,EP & UP European crosses 15.3% Indian crosses 17.7% Local types 67.0% Sunil Gamage 2012

SabP, SP, and WP 51.1% 16.4% 32.5%

3.18.3 Dry zone can maintain a much larger crossbred population with efficient use of crop residue, however these areas are dominated by indigenous types mainly reared for meat purpose. 3.18.4 The average production per cow per day in the Dry Zone is 1.91 liters, whereas in other areas it is 3.47 liters. Simultaneously with the improvement of feeding, a rapid breeding program to increase crossbreds with milk producing trait will have a bigger impact. 3.18.5 Replacement of dairy cows is a product of several breeding strategies that includes artificial breeding and natural breeding. Artificial breeding incorporates artificial insemination (AI) or in some cases oestrus synchronization followed by Artificial Insemination (Timed Artificial Insemination - TAI) in some selected farms, whereas natural breeding is with good quality studs from rearing and supplying program of crossbred stud bulls. However, in the dry zone artificial breeding is lacking due to various reasons, furthermore the farmers resort to breed their stock using scrap animals with 3

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PgC yr is petagram of carbon per year , a petagram is a billion metric tons – “to put this in perspective, think about a train of railroad goods wagon full of coal. One such wagon will hold 100 metric tons coal which is about 80% carbon. If the carriage is 60 feet long (including the couplings) then a train hauling one petagram of carbon as coal would have to be about 156,500 miles long.” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association- US Department of Commerce. www.pmel.noaa.gov/CO2 4

G.R.van der Werf, J.T.Randerson, L.Giglio, G.J.Colatz, P.S.Kasibhatla and A.F.Arellano Jr. (2006) International Variation in Global biomass burning emissions from1997-2004. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 6, 3423-3441





poor production abilities. The current practice is to breed animals only through AI by AI technicians. The flaws in this process can be seen by the number of AIs required for one pregnancy (3:1). The reasons for this primarily feeding, then the knowledge on heat detection by the farmer, time duration, mobility, availability of staff, skills of AI technician and the quality of semen. Hence, most farmers resort to utilize scrap animals to prevent any interruption to the milk supply. Milk production commences after a pregnancy and a calving. Consequently, in the short run this is the most productive way of getting a reliable milk supply. But the subsequent generations may not give a yield as much as their mothers.