Dairy cows are important global contributors to agriculture as sources of milk and milk products. Milk is the single largest agricultural commodity in India valued at INR 9.3 lakh crore per year. Dairy farming offers round-the-year gainful direct employment to the rural population (>8 crore households) of India.
Genetic potential of crossbred cows in India is currently not exploited fully for want of proper nutrition. Though, the potential is around 15 kg milk or more per cow per day, the actual average production is around 8.55 kg milk or less per day per cow). In fact, improper nutrition of the dairy cows is the major reason for low productivity of crossbred dairy cows in India. Adequate quantity and quality of feed (roughage as well as concentrate) is important for optimizing milk production and to get profit from dairy business. Let us discuss various aspects of basic feeding & nutrition of dairy cows in India.
Profitability in dairy farming
Profitability in dairying mainly depends on cost of milk production. The cost of balanced compound cattle feed, dry fodder & green fodder forms more than 60-70% of the cost of milk production. Quality & quantity of feed given to dairy cows is important to optimize the cost of milk production.
Status of dairy cattle feeding in India
Majority of dairy cows in India are currently given imbalanced feed containing one or more of individual raw materials or feed ingredients like oil seed cakes / oil seed extractions / wheat bran / rice bran / DORB / rice broken / whole rice / brewers waste / tapioca powder / maize powder etc. which costs more than the cost of balanced compound cattle feed.
Most of the dairy farmers in India are not aware of this inefficient practice that they still continue to follow, while feeding their milch stock. Milk production is affected by feeding of individual ingredients arbitrarily, and or feeding of inadequate quantity of balanced compound cattle feed.
A well balanced total mixed ration (TMR) diet consisting of right quantity and right proportion of balanced compound cattle feed, dry fodder & green fodder maximizes the performance of dairy cows. Quality of balanced compound cattle feed plays an important role in achieving higher milk production, better milk quality, apart from better health, strong immunity and robust reproductive performance of cows.
Balanced compound cattle feed
Balanced compound cattle feed is a homogeneous mixture of cereal grains, grain byproducts, oil seed cakes, oil seed extractions, pulse byproducts, common salt, vitamins, macro minerals, minor minerals, essential feed supplements like rumen specific yeast culture, rumen specific enzymes, rumen bacteria modulators and rumen buffers like sodium bicarbonate, sea weed extracts etc.
If given with adequate quantity of green fodder & dry fodder, compound cattle feed manufactured by the organized sector in India is well balanced scientifically to meet the complete nutritional requirement of dairy cows throughout their life cycle, from the birth of a calf to culling of dairy cows.
Nutrients required for dairy cows
Feed given to dairy cows should contain nutrients like energy, protein, fibre, fat, vitamins, macro and micro minerals, and other essential feed supplements like rumen specific yeast culture, rumen specific enzymes, rumen bacteria modulators, common salt, and rumen buffers like sodium bicarbonate / seaweed extract etc.
Carbohydrates and fat are required to provide energy for maintenance, growth, and milk production. A combination of protein rich raw materials in dairy feed is required to supply all essential amino acids (which need to be given in feed) as they are required for milk protein synthesis in the udder. About 17 minerals are essential for dairy cows. Daily feeding of macro and micro minerals to dairy cows is essential for getting optimum milk production, milk quality, health, immunity & reproductive performance in dairy cows.
About 15 vitamins are required for dairy cows, out of which vitamins A, D3 & E are to be supplemented in the cattle feed. Green fodder is rich in carotene, a precursor for vitamin A synthesis in cows’ body. If adequate green fodder is not available, then daily feeding of a separate vitamin premix is necessary.
For dairy cows, drinking water is the most essential feed ingredient, which is often not taken care of by the dairy farmers. Continuous supply of clean drinking water throughout the day (24 hours) is very essential for optimum milk production
Components of dairy feed
There are 3 main components: dry fodder, green fodder, and balanced compound cattle feed (concentrate mixture). Examples of dry fodder include paddy straw, jowar straw, wheat straw, barley straw & stovers etc. Examples of green fodder include grass, legume fodder, silages & tree leaves etc.
Feed requirements of dairy cows
Dry fodder has very poor nutritive value and it mainly just satisfies appetite and provides feeling of fullness (bulk) to the dairy cow. Green fodder consisting of Napier Bajra hybrid grass, Berseem, Lucerne (legume fodder), Agathi, Subabul, mulberry (tree leaves) etc., provide energy, protein, fibre, vitamins, and minerals in bioavailable form. Adequate green fodder (around 40 to 50 kg per cow / day) helps to reduce the total feed cost per litre of milk and the overall cost of dairying.
Dairy cows’ requirement for feed is divided into the maintenance requirement and the production requirement. Maintenance requirement takes care of the normal basic metabolic functions of the dairy cow. Production requirement is for milk production (quantity of milk and fat % of milk), growth of animal and growth of its fetus (in case of pregnant cows).
Practical feeding of dairy cows
Feeds given to dairy cows should contain the right amount (quantity) and right proportion (ratio) of all nutrients (> 47) required for body maintenance, body growth, milk production, milk quality, health, immunity, and growth of unborn calf (in pregnant cows) on daily basis.
Dry matter requirement of cows
In general, crossbred dairy cows consume around 2.5 kg to 4.5 kg of dry matter (DM) for every 100 kg of their live body weight per day (in 24 hours). If green fodder is available in plenty, then 60% of the dry matter required per day / cow can be provided as green fodder, dry fodder, or silage. If sufficient fodder is not available, then maximum 50 % of dry matter (DM)required per day per cow can be given in the form of balanced compound cattle feed and 20% of dry matter (DM) can be given through dry fodder and balance 30% of dry matter (DM) can be given through green fodder or silage. Dry matter content of compound cattle feed and dry fodder is approximately 90%. Dry matter content of green fodder is approximately 20%.
Thumb rule for total cattle feed calculation
As an example: consider body weight of a crossbred cow as 400 kg, and its milk yield as 10 kg / day /cow & milk fat as 4% (Not pregnant).
Total dry matter (DM) required at the rate of 3% of body weight of the cow = 400*0.03 = 12 kg dry matter per day.
If adequate quantity of green fodder and dry fodder is available, then 2/3rd quantity of the overall total dry matter required per day per cow can be given as fodder and 1/3rd quantity of overall total dry matter required per cow per day can be given as compound cattle feed (concentrate mixture).
Out of the total dry matter from fodder category, 1/3rd quantity of dry matter can be given as dry fodder and 2/3rd quantity of the dry matter can be given as green fodder.
Based on this assumption of adequate availability of green and dry fodder we can work out the quantity of each category of cattle feed as follows:
Quantity of fodder required
2/3rd or 66.67 % of 12 kg overall total dry matter equals to 8 kg dry matter from fodder category
Out of the 8 kg dry matter from fodder category, quantity of green fodder required is 2/3rd or 66.67% which equals to 5.33 kg dry matter from green fodder which is equal to 26.65 kg of green fodder (both grass and legume) with around 20% moisture.
Out of the 8 kg dry matter from fodder, quantity of dry fodder required is 1/3rd or 33.33% which is equal to 2.66 kg dry matter from dry fodder which is equal to 2.95 kg of dry fodder with around 10 % moisture.
Quantity of compound cattle feed required
1/3rd or 33.33 % of 12 kg overall total dry matter equals to 4 kg dry matter which is equal to 4.44 kg of good quality balanced compound cattle feed (in pellet or mash form) with around10% moisture.
Final feed quantity required: dry fodder around 3 kg + green fodder around 27 kg+ balanced compound cattle feed around 4.50 kg per cow / day.
Kindly note that the abovementioned suggestions are given as general guidelines only.
Thumb rule for compound cattle feed quantity
For body maintenance, provide around 1 kg to 1.5 kg of good quality balanced compound cattle feed per cow per day (24 hours). Additionally, for milk production, provide 400 gm of good quality balanced compound cattle feed per kg of milk yield per day per cow. For pregnant animals, provide an additional 1.5 kg to 2 kg of good quality balanced compound cattle feed per cow per day from the 7th month of pregnancy to calving
Apart from that, it is important to give good quality dairy feed supplement containing calcium, phosphorous, other macro minerals and micro minerals including Zinc, Copper and Manganese in highly bioavailable form, rumen specific yeast culture & rumen specific enzymes to dairy cows daily throughout their life cycle from calf stage to culling of cows.
Conclusions
The potential of cows and buffaloes are more in India. They are underperforming mostly due to under feeding. Focus on quality and quantity of feeds with necessary feed supplements would help them to unleash their potential.
