Feeding Cattle & Others – Sustainable Livestock Nutrition

Livestock is very important for almost any small-scale farming around the world. Livestock plays several roles in many farms. They provide traction to cultivate fields, delicious and nutritious food for people, and manure to increase fertility of the fields to maintain crop productivity. Human beings have been raising livestock throughout the history for their own benefits and for generating income through farming. However, despite the significance of livestock, inadequate livestock nutrition often becomes a problem, especially during the summer or during droughts when farmers face a shortage of livestock feed.

Quality of animal feed as well as proper feeding practices play important roles in feeding your livestock for healthy livestock growth and sustainability. Your livestock feeding expenses can increase during the dry seasons in the summer because the availability of quality forages may become scarce.

Year round green fodder for animals

Hay is the typical food for livestock, including cattle, horses, goats, alpacas and sheep. When pasture grass is not adequate for your livestock, feeding your livestock with green fodder is recommended during the summer. All hay is not created equal, and with a little planning, you could grow your own high quality hay with your own hydroponic system. Nutrition value of hay depends on the green leaf content in the grass. The green leaves of the hay have more nutrient value and the animals digest it easier than the stems and straws in the hay. In the summer, animals benefit from the green part of the hay more than the stems because green leaves are easier to digest and animals need less energy to digest. Moreover, they produce less heat during the digestion process.

Microgreen fodder is ideal for livestock because animals easily digest it. It provides a high nutrition value, and it helps reduce heat stress in animals during the summer. Your typical pastures may not be as effective in feeding livestock optimally as the micro-greens would because they offer several benefits over regular hay and pasture grass.

Benefits of feeding micro-green fodder:

Micro-greens can be grown in soil-less hydroponic systems that do not require much water, and can be grown easily in very small spaces without much effort, using only trays and seeds. Micro-green fodder can also be used for producing commercial feed for livestock. Your animals will love the fodder you produce through your micro-green fodder system. The benefits are as follows:

 

1. Highly nutritious
2. Easily digestible
3. Rapid growth
4. Needs less water
5. Year round growth is possible
6. Low cost
7. Environmentally sustainable

Feed in a box

If you don’t have the time to grow your own fodder, you can always buy feed in a box to feed your animals during feeding shortages. Buying hay might be too expensive for you if you have a large farm and not enough grass on the field for grazing your animals. Besides, you might want to give your pasture enough time to recover, giving it rest periodically. Supplementing your livestock with Feed in A Box Microgreens (fodder) can provide your animals with adequate nutrition while your pasture can have time to recover. You can buy 15 to 20 lb. flakes to feed your animals on a daily basis or according to your needs, for example, if you have 5 horses or cows, 10 flakes a day maybe enough for feeding them.  You can go on vacation and not buy anything at all for a week, or you can sell your animals and not have a system sitting around that you don’t use.  You can also find “vending machine” for high quality and a relatively low cost livestock feed – Feed in a Box Microgreens (fodder). 

Proper nutrition during the hot summer is a key factor in raising healthy livestock. What are your thoughts on hydroponic fodder systems? Do you already own one? If not, give it a try; I am sure you will love it.

Source: Sustainable livestock Nutrition

 

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