Feeding balanced ration can improve the productivity and economics of milk production in dairy cattle: a comprehensive field study

Influence of access to extension services on milk productivity among smallholder dairy farmers in Njoro Sub-County, Nakuru County, Kenya

Inaccessibility to extension services by smallholder farmers remains one of the impediments to achieving high agricultural productivity and food security. Extension services play a critical role in information dissemination that can avert food insecurity and increase smallholder dairy farmers' incomes. However, access to extension services remains a significant challenge in developing countries. This study investigated the influence of access to extension services on milk productivity among smallholder dairy farmers in Njoro Sub-County, Nakuru County, Kenya. The study's target and accessible population was 17,000 smallholder dairy farmers. The study used simple random and proportionate sampling techniques to select study farmers. Nassiuma's formula generated a sample of 120 smallholder dairy farmers. The hypothesis underwent testing using simple linear regression. The regression results found a statistically significant influence between access to extension services and milk productivity at a 5% significance level (p < 0.05). Findings show that most smallholder dairy farmers accessed extension services through television, radio, neighbours, and friends. In contrast, the top animal husbandry practices that most farmers were interested in were parasite and disease control, breed selection, and feed preparation. The Government of Kenya mainly provided vaccination services, while the other veterinary services, including deworming, pregnancy and disease diagnosis, breed selection, and treatment, were dominated by private entities. The Government of Kenya should improve smallholder dairy farmers' access to extension services. The study recommends channeling agricultural information in all possible vernacular languages and Kiswahili, the national language, via television and radio platforms to reach all smallholder dairy cow farmers. Additionally, more emphasis should be on the importance of appropriate milking techniques and record-keeping among smallholder dairy farmers to help monitor their animals' health, feeding, breeding, and milk productivity.

Exploring dietary quality characteristics related to milk yield of crossbred cows in Ethiopian smallholder farms: a clustering and multivariate analysis approach

The study, conducted on 70 smallholder dairy farms in Northern Ethiopia, aimed to evaluate whether variation in milk yield (in early and mid-lactation) of multiparous Holstein-Friesian crossbred cows is related to diet composition and quality. At early stage (1-120 days in milk (DIM)), a total of 70 dairy farms were used, while at mid-lactation (121-240 DIM), 54 dairy farms continued to be part of the study. K-means clustering was applied to group the cows based on energy-corrected milk yield (ECMY) into three milk production farm clusters (MPFC): Low MPFC (5.7-9.3 L/day), medium MPFC (9.4-12.8 L/day), and high MPFC (12.9-17.6 L/day). The dry matter intake (DMI) of cows during early lactation for high MPFC and low MPFC was 14.1 and 11.2 kg/day, respectively. The dietary proportion of crop residues in diets offered to crossbred cows tended to be lower in the high MPFC during early as well as in mid-lactation. Cows from the high MPFC consumed diets with higher (rumen degradable) protein levels both in early and in mid-lactation, while dietary fiber fractions and in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) only differed in early lactation. Multiple regression models indicated that DMI (kg/day) in combination with either neutral detergent fiber, crude protein, or IVDMD (g/kg DM) explained about 25% of the variation in daily ECMY expressed relative to body weight (mL/kg). Hence, higher milk production is linked to both increased DMI and better quality of diets.

Comparative study of three prediction models in predicting the milk yields of Yunnan Holstein cows

The polynomial model and wood model have been extensively applied to predict the milk yield of cows, which aims to measure and partially explain the uncertainty under single factor condition. However, different sample data would affect the goodness of fit of the models. To investigate the milk yield regularities of the Chinese Holstein cows in Yunnan Standardized Pasture (YSP), data of cows with 1–3 parities using different observation periods were derived from the 401,497 records of 1,826 cows collected from YSP, and fitted in the BP neural network (BPNN) model, the Quadrinomial model and the Wood model. Prediction results of three models were compared. The results show that, for group data (mean), the Quadrinomial model was likely to over-fit under the single factor condition with small sample data, while the Wood model had a better goodness of fit; the BPNN model was more suitable for multi-factor and large sample data analysis.

Mineral mixture supplementation for enhancing milk yield of milch animals in Haryana

Most of the Indian soils are deficient in one or more minerals and these minerals are important in numerous biochemical reactions and deficiency may lead to metabolic diseases resulting lowering production performance in dairy animals. The study attempts to evaluate status nutrient intake in dairy animals, effect of reappropriation of available feed resources and mineral mixture supplementation on production performance in lactating cows and buffaloes in Katesara and Amarpur villages under Farmers’ FIRST project in Palwal district. The animals were in their early lactation (40±5 days in milk) and milk yield, its composition, body weight and body condition score was recorded. Among the cow, 28% deficit, 35% excess dry matter; 41% deficit and 11% excess crude protein; 33% deficit and 25% excess total digestible nutrients (TDN) was provided. In buffaloes, 36% deficit and 40% excess DM; 45% deficit and 15% excess CP; 25% deficit and 12% excess TDN was provided. Reappropriation of DM, CP and TDN was done using available feed/ fodders available to the farmers and after 15 days, mineral mixture was provided @ 50 g/d for 60 days. The production performance record reveals no change in body weight but BCS was improved. Milk yield, fat, protein in cows were improved and other composition were remain unchanged. In buffaloes, milk yield, fat and protein improved while others, viz. lactose, SNF, ash and TS were similar due to supplementation of mineral mixture. The results conclude that imbalance of nutrients existed to the tune of 10 to 45% among various nutrients. One of the best propositions could be supplementation of mineral mixture to improve milk yield (10 to 14%) and fat per cent under field condition in both cows and buffaloes.