The Hindu Business Line : India wasting green fodder advantage: Expert

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Salem Feb. 20 The Indian dairying industry is over-emphasising the use of concentrate feeds and not sufficiently leveraging the huge green fodder advantage the country enjoys over New Zealand or Europe.

Mr Shane Whittaker, a dairy herd development specialist engaged by the Chennai-based Hatsun Agro Product Ltd, said: "In my country (New Zealand), the animals are fed mostly on rye grass and white clover mix and 95 per cent farmers do not give any concentrates."

An average New Zealand cow consumes around 130 kg fodder every day, of which 15 per cent (20 kg) represents the "dry matter", from where energy is derived. In contrast, farmers here typically feed just 25 kg of fodder, which gives a higher 20 per cent (5 kg) dry matter.

"Your farmers are told their cattle cannot eat more and, therefore, require more concentrates. This is hogwash because we (at Hatsun) have demonstrated that cows can easily be fed 40 kg fodder and, when dry (i.e, not giving milk), they don't need any concentrates," Mr Whittaker, who has provided consultancy to dairy farms across New Zealand, Europe and the US, told Business Line.

But more important is the advantage India has in year-round cultivation of fodder. "In New Zealand, we get some 7,200 kg of dry matter annually per acre, with daily yields ranging from 0-8 kg in winter to 40-50 kg in spring and early summer. Here, not only are overall yields higher (26-28,000 kgs), but there is no marked seasonality, with daily production amounting to 250 kg in winter and 480 kg in summer," he noted.

Mr Whittaker said farmers in Tamil Nadu normally get 120-130 tonnes of `Co3' fodder per acre across eight harvests every 45 days. "You can easily raise this to 150 tonnes (30 tonnes dry matter). If this is combined with the use of brush-cutters for harvesting and rain-guns (to increase irrigation efficiency, while reducing water consumption by 40-50 per cent), the cost of Co3 fodder can come down from 50 paise to Rs 10-15 paise a kg", he added.

This is as against the Rs 14.5-15 per kg cost for groundnut cake. "Concentrate feeds are fine, but do not ignore the significant green fodder advantage that tropical conditions offer," Mr Whittaker pointed out. The Managing Director of Hatsun Agro, Mr R.G. Chandramogan, said his company was trying to get farmers to cultivate good-quality fodder, such as Co3 (a bajra-napier hybrid) and desmanthes (hedge lucrene). An animal fed 40 kg of Co3 (Rs 4-6) and 7 kg of desmanthes (Rs 1.75) daily obtains 9.4 kg of dry matter and 1.08 kg of crude protein, against their total corresponding requirements of 18 kg and 2.25 kg for producing 15 l of milk.

"If half of the dry matter and protein requirement can be met by fodder grown by farmers themselves, one can accordingly reduce reliance on more expensive concentrates," Mr Chandramogan said. Hatsun, he added, was working at bringing down feed cost per litre of milk by Rs two to Rs 5-5.1, so that farmers can make a margin of Rs 3.5 on a sale price of Rs 10.

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