Abstract
Introduction
The livestock industry
Methods and materials
Research recommendations
Management
Results
Discussion
Dissemination of research results to users by extension agents
Inputs supply
Prices
Conclusion
References
L.P. Nkhonjera
Department of Animal Health & Industry, P. O. Box 30372,
Capital City, Lilongwe 3, Malawi.
Means were calculated on the weight gains of Malawi zebu steers stall-fed for beef. These steers were fattened using groundnut haulms, maize stover and maize bran. The mean stall-feeding period in Lilongwe Agricultural Development Division was 135 days and the average total weight gain was 62.1 kg. Steers in the Kasungu Agricultural Development Division were fed for 150 days and gained 92.6 kg. In each case gain was seen to be influenced by period of feeding and quality of feed though there was no statistical analysis of the data.
The means for lactation length and lactation yields were determined by simple division for the dairy cows in the Blantyre and Mzuzu Milk Shed Areas. The average lactation length was 313 days and 2288.6 kg. as the average lactation yield. Lactation length was seen to increase with breed. Milk yields were substantially increasing with breed and decreased with the 7/8 crossbreed.
It was found that besides this level of performance adoption of technology by farmers was affected by unqualified extension services, high cost of inputs and low product prices which were not reviewed at frequent intervals. Increased economic security, high social status within the farmers and increased employment opportunities were singled as obvious impacts of dairy farming which are managed based on research recommendations.
The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country. It lies south of the Equator between latitudes 9° 30'S and 17°S and longitudes 33°E and 36°E. The climate is subtropical. Rainfall is unimodal occurring between November and April. The rainy season is followed by a long dry season from May to October. The average annual rainfall ranges from 750 mm in the drier parts of the country to 1000 mm in the wetter parts.
The total land area is 119,140 sq. km, 20 percent of which is under water in the form of lakes. The total population is 7.5 million (1987 population census).
The country has a basically agricultural economy. The largest proportion of foreign exchange is earned from the agricultural industry. It is estimated that over 85 percent of the population live in the rural areas and depend on small-scale agricultural production. Average size of holdings varies from region to region and is 1.72, 1.81 and 1.96 ha in the South, central and North regions respectively. The cattle population is estimated at 838,471 (Dep. of Animal Health and Industry, unpublished).
The following economic key indicators confirm the important role of the agricultural industry to the economy of the country (Econ. and Planning Dir., 1987).
|
1. Agricultural contribution to GDP |
- 38% |
|
2. Labour force in Agriculture |
- 85% |
|
3. Agriculture contribution to foreign exchange |
- 30% |
|
4. Livestock contribution to the overall agricultural GDP |
- 8% |
The Agricultural sector in Malawi is divided into two divisions. The smallholder (subsistence) sector grows crops maize, rice, beans, groundnuts, cassava, sweet potatoes, and pulses and keeps over 95 percent of the livestock. The estate or commercial sector grows tea, tobacco, sung, coffee and sugar. In both sectors there is adequate production of crop residues and other agricultural by-products.
This paper outlines the practical experiences in the utilisation of forages and by-products in the two popular livestock production systems of dairy and beef stall-fattening. It also discusses the potentials of forages and crop by-products as alternative forms of profitable land use through animal production.
The beef cattle fattening programme started in 1957. It has since met with considerable success and has gained acceptance by smallholder farmers in most parts of the country. The purpose of the scheme is to produce top grade beef for the domestic market with consequent sparing of foreign exchange. Additionally the financial benefits that accrue to the farmer enables him to purchase inputs to intensify crop production. An additional benefit is in the production of manure which plays an important role in the maintenance of soil fertility and hence increases crop yields. The management system is based on resource available to the farmer and fattening is mostly done soon after crop harvest.
Rural dairying as a sideline of traditional and extensive cattle keeping has been practiced in Malawi for a long time. Real dairying originated with estate crop farmers before independence in 1964. These farmers kept mainly Jersey, Ayrshire and Friesian Cattle. Milk produced was used at the estates and in nearby communities. Smallholder dairying is now a little over 1.5 decades old from the time it was initiated by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO/UNDP) in 1971. At the moment there are 1156 smallholder farms established. The management system is based on the cultivated forage crops of Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) and in some cases complemented with Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana) while for concentrate feeds these are procured from commercial feed companies that use ingredients of agro-industrial by-products, and to some extent, locally mixed rations from maize bran, cottonseed cake or dried Leucaena-leaf meal.
This paper focusses the discussions on stall-feeding in the Central Region where maximum use is made of crop residues of groundnut haulms, maize stover and maize bran and the smallholder dairy farming in the Blantyre and Mzuzu Milk shed Areas where Napier grass is a cultivated fodder crop and very localised use is made of crop residues due to the limited crop production activities in the areas.
The programme of beef cattle fattening commonly known as stall-feeding and small-holder dairy farming exist in the four and five of the 8 national Agricultural Development Divisions respectively. For the purpose of this paper the following criteria were used in choosing the source of data:
i) Information available on the feed resources utilised
ii) The feeding system which should exclusively be based on any one of the two feed resources; forages with no crop residues and the latter without the former
iii) Cows that completed one year lactation under the small holder milk recording scheme
The data set used in this paper though small could be taken to represent a complete set of all data that were recorded from both the smallholder dairy and stall-feeding programmes.
Records for individual steers fattened were built up for 1985, 1986 and 1987 from the Central Region of Malawi.
The data used are from a total of 3056 steers. Basic information for each steer included issue weight and cold dressed weight and total output weight was found by dividing the cold dressed weight with a dressing percentage of 52 (Nkhonjera et al, 1984). The difference between this weight and the issue weight was divided by the number of steers to arrive at the average weight gain. The average gross income was the difference between total output value and total issue value divided by the number of steers.
In the data set for dairy farming, average lactation length and average milk yields were derived by simple division of the totals of lactation days and milk yields by the number of animals in each breed group. All the data was extracted from the records kept under the milk recording scheme.
An extract from "small-holder dairy farming handbook in Malawi" on feeding a heifer in her first lactation is used to illustrate feeding standards in both the wet and dry seasons. These standards are:
1. Wet Season
a) Young leafy grass from either Napier or Rhodes grass
b) Maize bran with some leucaena or groundnut cake or cotton-seed cake.
2. Dry Season
a) Grass hay and/or silage
b) Groundnut haulms or sweet potato vines
c) maize bran with some leucaena or groundnut cake or cotton-seed cake
In each case levels of combination were to be decided upon based on the weight of the heifer cow, animal production record and nutritive value (in terms of dry matter, digestible crude protein and total digestible nutrients) of the ingredients.
The stall-feeding programme had the following as minimum recommended package,
i) 1200 of maize bran (Madeya) for two steers
ii) A heap of groundnut haulms with volumetric dimensions of 5 × 4 × 2 metres
iii) Initial liveweight of 227 kg and two permanent teeth and 250 kg liveweight for Malawi Zebu and Crossbred, steers (Mz × Fr or Mz × Br) respectively.
Two steers issued to a farmer in a group of 5 farmers were dosed against internal parasites before putting them in stall. Whilst in stalls steers were given crop residues of groundnut haulms, maize stover and maize bran on ad lib basis. Water was available at all times.
A minimum area of 0.8 ha per a two-cow unit was required. Each farmer established a pure stand of Napier and in a few cases a pure stand of leucaena.
Very occasionally, mixed stands of Napier grass and silver leaf (Desmodium uncinatum) could be seen. In the drier areas, Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana) was cultivated. Using the "cut and carry" system, cattle were stall-fed on ad lib basis. During the dry season liberal amounts of hay and silage were fed in the drier and wetter areas respectively. An alternate system of feeding concentrates with maize bran as a production ration was common as dictated by the supply of the concentrate feeds. All cows were kept in stalls as a means of conserving energy, for easy detection of heat and to avoid contact with local Malawi zebu bulls. Cows within easy reach of dip tanks were dipped while spraying was common in areas without dip tanks. Deworming was done twice a year before and after the rains.
After parturition calves stayed with their dams for 5 days after which they were separated. Hand milking started on the fifth day. The calf is from this time on allowed to suckle for 30 minutes twice a day after each milking. These calves were weaned at 12 to 15 weeks old. Each cow as she calved down was immediately entered in the recording scheme. The farmer kept records on; daily production, date served, veterinary treatment received and remark column in which he was expected to report amount of concentrate feed given, mortality and carvings.
Means of weight and days in stall are given in Table 1. Since no statistical analysis was done it was not possible to qualify the differences in the weight gains by years and Agricultural Development Division statistically. However in the Lilongwe Agricultural Development Division (LADD) average weight gains were lower than those in Kasungu Agricultural Development Division (KADD).
Average gross income was higher in Lilongwe ADD and lower in Kasungu ADD as shown in Table 2.
Milk production parameters considered in this paper were lactation length and total milk yields. Averages of total lactation length and lactation yields are shown in Table 3. Average financial returns are also shown in Table 3.
The average lactation yields were 2053, 2511 and 2302 kg. For 1/2, 3/4 and 7/8th Friesian Crossbred cows. The trend was that the higher the Friesian blood level the higher the milk yields. When corrected to 305 lactation days yields were 2159, 2479 and 2059 kg for 1/2, 3/4 and 7/8 Friesians respectively.
Lactation length was longer with the 7/8 Friesian and shortest for the 1/2 Friesian cows. However yields were the lowest in case of the former.
Table 1. Performance of cattle fattened on crop residue and maize bran in the Central Region.
|
ADD |
N |
Year |
|
Total calculated |
||
|
Issue wt.(kg) |
Total Output wt.(kg) |
Av. wt. gain |
Days in stall |
|||
|
LADD
|
1069 |
1985 |
123258 |
194132.7 |
66.3 |
135 |
|
767 |
1986 |
200954 |
239327 |
50.03 |
135 |
|
|
780 |
1987 |
101123 |
155567 |
69.9 |
135 |
|
|
KADD
|
227 |
1986 |
62768.8 |
86097.3 |
102.7 |
156 |
|
213 |
1987 |
55930.0 |
73505.46 |
82.5 |
150 |
|
Table 2. Gross farm income from fattening steers in the central region.
|
ADD
|
N
|
Year
|
Total issue |
Total output |
Average |
|
Value (MK)1 |
Value (MK) |
Gross Income (MK) |
|||
|
LADD
|
1069 |
1985 |
66516.77 |
145975.54 |
74.33 |
|
767 |
1986 |
113973.83 |
162325.51 |
63.04 |
|
|
780 |
1987 |
47988.77 |
142483.97 |
118.84 |
|
|
KADD
|
277 |
1986 |
42020.68 |
56410.96 |
63.39 |
|
213 |
1987 |
52022.32 |
64978.85 |
60.82 |
1MK = malawi Kwacha (1 US$ = 2.38 MK, average 1985, 1986)
Average prices of cold dressed carcasses were:
1985: MK1.12 (US $0.50)
1986: MK1.26 (US $0.50
1987: MK1.70 (US $0.68)
Table 3. Average lactation length milk yields and gross income for dairy cows in the Blantyre and Mzuzu milk shed areas.
|
Breed |
No. |
At lactation length |
Milk yields litres |
Gross income per cow (K) |
|
1/2 fresian |
18 |
290 |
2052.95 |
821.18 |
|
3/4 fresian |
24 |
309 |
2511.07 |
1004.43 |
|
7/8 fresian |
11 |
341 |
2301.9 |
920.76 |
Table 4. Total land size under Napier rhodes grass and leucaena and herd size in the Blantyre and Mzuzu shed areas.
|
No. of cows |
Napier |
Land size (ha) Rhodes |
Leucaena |
|
2013 |
499.9 |
80.57 |
47.05 |
Average pasture land per cow: 0.31 ha
Steers in Kasungu Agricultural Development Division stayed in stalls longer than the ones in Lilongwe Agricultural Development Division. The recommendation is that steers have to stay in stall for a minimum period of 150 days. By this time they will have gained an average of 90 kg. However, Addy and Thomas (1975) indicated that steers finished on fertilized Rhodes grass and supplemented with 5 kg of maize bran stayed in stalls 130 days and gained an average of 115.7 kg. In the results above the low weight gains were attributed to two main reasons. In Lilongwe ADDs farmers quite often ran short of feed and therefore steers were removed before completing the recommended period. The second reason is that due to inadequate feed supply which very likely led to low feed intake the steers showed low weight changes even if they stayed in stalls for 150 days.
It is recommended that two steers would require 1200 kg of maize bran throughout the fattening period. Using the factor of 15 percent as maize bran from pounded maize grain, ideally there should be about 88, 90 kg bags of maize within the locality. Nowadays maize production levels are so dubious that it is very unlikely to get more maize bran. Worse still, maize bran has many alternative uses these days.
The price of cold dressed carcases depended on grade and weight. Regardless of higher weight gains in Kasungu ADD it is likely that the majority of the steers fetched the lower grade of standard. In addition Lilongwe ADD farmers stayed longer in the stall-feeding programme. They had therefore long experience to be able to judiciously assess a finished steer.
The dairy data used are from areas with rainfall above 750 mm per annum. This is favourable for intensive cultivation of pasture. Consequently due to the rapid growth potential, pastures are in plentiful supply although there is limited land under pasture. Although the sample is too small, the average milk yields of 2289 kg is 4% higher than 2188 kg which was reported by Agyemang and Nkhonjera (1986). Research recommended that as Friesian blood level increases in a continuous upgrading programme the resultant cows should be fed balanced rations. Most of these farmers were feeding either concentrates from commercial companies or these were diluted with maize bran. Feeding was according to the production record of 1 kg of feed for every 2 kg of milk. However, the 7/8 Friesian cows could have not adequately been fed and probably that is why their milk yields were low.
Besides the research recommendations on Napier fodders and pasture grasses to be established, farmers established both species regardless of the ecology of the area. The result was that where these grasses were grown alongside each other, Rhodes grass could not be conserved as hay in wet areas. Farmers therefore opted to graze the grass, a management system requiring heavy fertilizer application to the pasture. Most farmers could not manage this. The grass therefore, became unacceptable to the majority of farmers. Seed multiplication plots were also not set up to enable expansion of pasture plots. An additional factor is the cost of legume seeds which is prohibitively high.
Quality of extension service was affected by: the lack of effective leadership which is due to background training and lack of motivation. A further limitation to adoption of technologies such as silage making is the labour requirement in the absence of mechanical facilities like choppers and compacting materials.
An integrated approach in planning crop and livestock production does not exist. The consequence has been inadequate feeds for livestock.
In the past, areas of research have been decided upon by ministerial policy making body. This body has also reviewed research findings to examine their relevance to the programmes being promoted. However, the services of this body disappeared and the result has been that a lot of research results have not been passed onto users. Nevertheless field days have been organised by both research and extension. In the former feedback had been expected from extension agents the majority of whom had poor background training. While the latter has used it as a means to transfer technology to the producers. All farmers training centres have established relevant demonstration units to be used when conducting demonstrations classes on specific animal production disciplines. In addition to meeting certain standards, farmers who have intended to establish dairy farms have undergone a two-week training course in dairy husbandry including feed conservation. Stronger farmer group organisations have been involved in order to participate in the development of the dairy industry. Their functions are three fold; as a medium for supply of inputs, to provide a forum for extension services and to initiate self help programmes necessary for the development of the industry.
Publications, handouts, other leaflets and the mass media have been used to disseminate information.
Land holding sizes are becoming smaller and as population increases farmers are finding it difficult to spare adequate land for the number of cows. An alternative solution could be to adopt a mixed pasture establishment under intensive management. This again is restricted to areas of at least 1000 mm of rainfall. Cost of legume seeds is also seen as an inhibiting element.
Farmers in both programmes have been sensitive to any lag in price reviews. There has often been a decrease in participation in stall-feeding. It is clear that (Table 2) besides other factors the prices directly affected farm income. In dairy, milk had found alternative markets which was a demonstration against the low prices. Management of pastures and feed conservation has been lagging behind. Farmers could not afford high prices of fertilizers and some equipments.
Besides the shortfalls highlighted and with the recently instituted price liberalisation scheme economic benefits are being realised by the majority of farmers (Tables 2 and 3). Dairy farming has become one of the most prominent source of rural income. The economic advantages range from monthly flow of income which offers economic security to the cutting down of the dependency on inorganic fertilizers. Social status is above average in most of the dairy areas. Nutrition has improved in most families due to household consumption of milk. The farmers organisations offer employment opportunities and provide social services to the public. In general, there is a better economic atmosphere.
The increase in livestock productivity is inhibited by a number of factors; inadequate land, unqualified extension services and high costs of some inputs. It is necessary that feed resources research work should pay attention to some work in trying to come up with low cost inputs. This will enable adoption of technologies that could be most acceptable in the existing economic climate. Interaction between extension and research is of poor quality because the farmer is manned by personnel with inadequate background training. Above all, frequent price reviews are necessary if the farmers are not to lag in their management systems.
Agyemang, K. and Nkhonjera, L.P. 1986. Evaluation of the productivity of crossbred dairy cattle on smallholder and Government farms in the Republic of Malawi. ILCA Research Report No. 12. ILCA, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Economic and Planning Division, Office of the President and Cabinet, Government of Malawi, 1987. An economic report. Econ. Plan. Div., Government Printer, Zomba, Malawi.
Addy, B.L. and Thomas, D. 1975. Beef fattening systems from Rhodes grass pastures. Research Bulletin No. 3/75. Extension Aids Branch, Ministry of Agric. Lilongwe.
Nkhonjera, L.P., Agyemang, K. and Butterworth, M.H. 1987. The performance of stall-fed for cattle for beef in Malawi. Tropical Agriculture 54(2):105-110.
