Boost in milk production with:

Two types of new cattle feed

Ishara MUDUGAMUWA

Though there is a huge demand for fresh liquid milk, we are still not in a position to produce enough milk to meet the local demand. The main reason for this is the lack of nutritious food for cattle. Two types of cattle feed has been introduced by the Agriculture Faculty of the University of Ruhuna to increase national milk production, Professor of Animal Science and Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, Thakshila Seresinhe said.

Under the guidance of Prof. Thakshila Seresinhe the faculty students produced two varieties of cattle feed and named them as 'Ruhunu Gava Thriposha' and 'Keta Poshakaya'.

"Most of our dairy farmers rear only five or six heads of cattle as a means of self employment. Most of these cattle feed by grazing, which results in less milk production. With the increasing of prices of cattle feed, livestock farmers find it difficult to provide nutritious food for their livestock. We have introduced these two varieties of cattle feed for farmers in the Southern Province at a low price," Prof. Seresinhe said.

She said "These two varieties have been introduced to increase liquid fresh milk production and uplift the living standards of dairy farmers. We use parts of the trees , molasses ( byproduct of sugarcane processing)and urea to produce these cattle feed. We have already trained farmers to produce these types of cattle feed by themselves."

She also said " We can produce cattle feed by using pineapple leaves, hay and with Weta Mara, Eramudu and Ipil Ipil, but farmers lack the knowledge in producing these things. We have conducted some workshops and trained them. Farmers can purchase the cattle feed products from the Faculty of Animal Science of the University of Ruhuna at a low price. The price of 300 grammes of Ruhunu Gava Poshaka is Rs.10 while the price of a 2 kg packet of Keta Poshaka is Rs.60.

"We plan to introduce these cattle feed products to new born cattle after four months. A daily nourishment of ten percent of the weight of each animal has to be provided to achieve the ideal feed requirement in addition to their normal intake.

"For example the provision of 30kg of feed is required for a 300 kg animal daily. If our farmers follow these measures properly maximum benefits could be obtained", she said.