Lack of supply, demand for quality feed increases

Amidst the growing income levels, and steady rise in milk consumption in India, the country is facing extreme mismatch between the breedable animals and the available cattle feed. This is hampering the quality and quantity of the milk production.

At a national workshop on Improving Feed Production Efficiency and Quality Control Aspects of Cattle feed plants, it was discussed that the need is to increase focus on improving quality of feed for the milch animals.

With the increase in the demand for milk, the productivity for dairy animals should also increase. The need of the hour is to focus on providing good quality feed and mineral mixture, and put up concerted efforts in promoting different variants of compound cattle feed for different categories of animals.

As per the data shared by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), the dairy cooperative network in the country produces 3.6 million tonnes of cattle feed per annum. This is against the installed capacity of 5 MTPA across 70 cattle feed plants.The private sector produces an additional 4.5 million tonnes of feed, which totals up to 8 MTPA – sufficient for only about 8 million cattle out of more than 100 million breed-able animals in the country.

There are many issues with regard to quality feed available for cattle. Some of them are, making available appropriate feed variants, development of skills and capability, modernization and renovation of plants, efficient management of inventory and transparency & integrity in purchases.

There is also a cattle feed knowledge portal, which is an interactive knowledge platform on various aspects of compound cattle feed production.

carbohydrates are a predominant source of energy for ruminants. Starch is degraded by animal gastric enzymes whereas fibres cannot. For buffaloes, fiber in the form of roughage is the most important and cheapest energy source. When calculating feed ratios for buffaloes, the term metabolizable energy is used. The gross energy of the feed is the amount present in the feed. Much of the energy is converted into heat which is lost through thermal regulation. Energy is also lost in the faeces and urine as well as in the methane and carbon dioxide gases.

India’s model of milk production is based on feeding crop residues and agricultural by-products and using family labour to add value to resources which otherwise have limited alternative economic value.

Feeding the cattle a balanced ration can help the milch animals produce milk commensurate with their genetic potential with the attendant benefits of lower cost, increased SNF, higher immunity to disease, improved reproductive efficiency and reduced methane emissions.

RS Cattle Feeds is one of the best Cattle, Animal and Poultry feed Manufacturers, Suppliers and Exporters in Tamil Nadu, India. We Supply a highly protein animal feeds that boost milk yield rate.