Low productivity of Indian dairy animals: Challenges and mitigation strategies
Dr.Bharti Yadav1, Dr.Praveen Kumar Agrawal2
Department of Animal nutrition
Post Graduate Institute of Veterinary Education and Research (PGIVER), Jaipur
1 PG Scholar, Department of Animal Nutrition, PGIVER, Jaipur
2PG Scholar, Department of Animal Nutrition, PGIVER, Jaipur
Email: bhartiyadav8952@gmail.com
Dairying is an important source of income and food security in a developing densely populated country like India. At present, India being the world’s largest milk producer contributes nearly one third (24.59%) of total milk produced (2022-23) and holds world’s largest dairy herd with over 300 million bovines, producing over 187 MT of milk averaging to yield of around 8.20kg for exotic/crossbred animal/ day and 2.44kg/day/ animal for indigenous/non-descript breed. This huge amount is majorly number driven making it poor productive herd. This costs heavy economic burden due to over exploitation of natural resources, higher feed cost per unit of milk, higher methane emission, more space needed, higher manure excretion feeding and poor genetic potential.
Low productivity of animals could be result of poor breeding values, low genetic potential, poor nutrition, bad farm management practices, and weak veterinary care. The lack in these approaches provides a wide window of innovation and improvement in Indian dairy productivity.
Tropical agro-climatic conditions and densely populated country like India is challenged with huge gap of demand and supply to fulfill the needs of rising population needing more and more resources and end up with no land and resources to feed the animals. Animals are fed with residues of crops, trees, pasture, grasses, forest fallen and agroindustry wastes etc.
Challenges of low productive herd:
- Reduction in cultivation land for green fodder:
Industrialization and shift towards commercial crop cultivation has diminished agriculture land uses for cultivation of green fodder for dairy herd. This lack of green fodder has put a burden on roughage and concentrate feeds. Green fodder is an essential portion of balanced ration for dairy animals as it helps to enhance the milk yield and act as source of vitamin A precursor. Green fodder also reduces the cost of feeding as it reduces need of concentrate feeding. Green fodder also enhances volatile fatty acid synthesis promoting higher yield.
- Use of low-quality crop residue for feeding of animals:
In India, dairy animals are reared on leftover of food crops like wheat, bajra, paddy which has low digestibility coefficient and produces lesser energy and poor nutrition to the animal. Crop residues are insufficient to support the production of animals.
- Less use of supplements and additive:
Every animal has different energy demand to support their high yield which varies with animal. To support animal health and production different vitamin, mineral and additives, rumenotorics, digestive stimulants, galactagogue etc. are required which has positive impact on animal’s health in lactation and prevent deterioration of body condition.
- Competition of feed and fodder with unproductive animals:
Unproductive animals in herd, pinjrapole, gaushalas are competing with productive animals for the feed and compromise their need with nutrient deficiency low quality feed or lack of sufficient feed availability.
- Extreme weather condition in Indian subcontinent:
Terrifying hot summer and chilly winter are crucial to the production efficiency of dairy animals as in summer heat stress and in winter cold wave affects the production efficiency of animals as lot of energy is being diverted to the body homeostasis regulation
- Genetic makeup of indigenous breeds: native Indian breeds has high disease resistant and hardy nature genetically but the production traits are not efficiently transmitted and expressed and their breeding value is low for production traits.
- Poor management practices:
Maximum dairy animals in India are kept by marginal framers with small land holding and space for livestock rearing. These farmers have lack of resources and managemental facilities for feeding, shedding, ventilation, movement, hygiene which affect the production quality and quantity of the animal. Improper practices lead to infectious diseases outbreak with parasitic infestation that affects the overall health of animal.
- Inefficient veterinary care:
Lack of awareness and poor veterinary facilities have led to development of sub clinical mastitis, retained placenta, abortion, repeat breeding torsion, infectious diseases and other reproductive failures that affects the production of animals directly. In India mastitis has been one of the most unidentified causes of agalactiae and permanent damage of udder in high producing herd rendering loss of production to a larger extend in animals.
Mitigation strategies:
During the era of global competition, achieving maximum productivity by using scarce natural resources is an astonishing challenge for a developing country like INDIA which could only be addressed by implementing innovations at different stages of production from fodder cultivation to marketing of milk and milk products directly to consumers to improve the net profit percent of dairy farmers. It involves application of different technological intervention in animal farm at varied level involved to enhance the productivity and yield of per animal/ day.
- A) Nutritional interventions:
Nutrition being the crucial requirement of any living organism for its survival, reproduction and production. It is only the feed ingested that is being converted in produce obtained from animal body after metabolic conversion.
In dairy animals feeding cost to around 60-70% of the total production cost. It helps to exploit the full genetic potential of an animal. Nutrients in taken are the detrimental factor affecting the quality and quantity of the milk obtained. Dairy animals must be supplied with balance ration of good quality protein, essential amino acid, NPN substances, good energy sources, high quality fiber and a premix balance of vitamin, mineral and additive to positively exploit the full genetic potential of dairy animal.
Nutritional innovation has emerged use of unconventional local feeds and fodder in scarcity fodder to sustain the productivity in lean period with quality and quantity production. it involves use of local feeds like areca sheath in southern states of country as an option to paddy straw having comparable nutritive value ICAR-NIANP (Gowda, 2016). This helps to reduce the cost of feed and production as feed accounts60-70% of total production cost. Growing high yielding bajra, sorghum, maize in fertile land and guinea grass in barren land helps to reduce the feed cost and improve the profit margin of farm.
Silage feed:
Dairy animals are need to be supplied with green fodder in all season to reduce the cost of extra concentrate feeding in lean/ scarcity period. In silage green fodder is stored in excess under controlled fermentation to retain its nutritive value which could be used in dairy animals in lean period to support their production without compromising on feed and loosing profit margin.
Bypass fat and protein:
Dairy animals have large rumen compartment in digestive system that degrade 60-705 of high-grade protein (essential amino acid) in ammonia in rumen and this ammonia is converted to an average quality of amino acid useful for rumen microbes. Apart from this a significant amount of this ammonia is excreted through urine and cannot be utilized in body. Since this process of degradation is an energy consuming process a whole lot of energy is spend to produce low nutritive value protein from a high-quality complex protein and a huge amount of energy and protein is waste as ammonia.
Certain high-grade protein and fat are supplemented to dairy animals in intense lactation to prevent use of body tissue and to supply high quality essential amino acid. To allow the direct benefit of these complex protein to animal these protein compounds are protect with certain treatment to reduce their rumen digestibility and enhance their digestion in abomasum where they are absorbed as such with higher efficiency. Treated protein meal can be supplemented as top feed 1kg/animal/day or can be incorporated in cattle feed@ 25% or @4-5kg/animal/day depending on level of production. Similarly bypass fat comprises fatty acids associated with calcium ions, in place of glycerol chain which makes them rumen inert. They are less susceptible to hydrogenation. They are useful in early lactating animal to increase milk and fat yield and ensure early conception.
Probiotics/prebiotics:
These are certain feed supplements which are aid in better digestive ability of the animals by improving overall gut health of animal. Probiotics involve live microbial culture that has beneficial microbes that affect host gut positively. Adding prebiotics helps to prevent ruminal acidosis, pathogen load and works in synchrony with other feed components to improve nutrient absorption and availability aiding in high milk production and compositional improvement in milk. Usually feeding of around 20 g prebiotic/ day/ animal is found useful and along with it prebiotic like FOS (Fructo-oligosaccharides), MOS (Mannan oligo-saccharides) are also fed to enhance the effectiveness of probiotics.
Total mixed ration:
Feeding a complete balanced ration made with proper blending of roughage and concentrate in form of TMR in appropriate proportion helps to meet the need of high yielding animals without affecting requirement of any components. TMR prevents segregation of any feed components by animals thus ensuring proper utilization of all feed and prevent feed wastage.
- B) Breeding intervention:
Animal breeding programs are aimed to improving the productivity of livestock through selection based on the predicted breeding value from best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP). Animal breeding has strived to obtain breeding value estimate for selecting candidates so that best parents could be selected to produce next generation with higher genetic merit, disease resistant, climate tolerance based on parents’ merit, individual own performance, sib merit of progeny merit etc.
Breeding innovations has been a powerful weapon to deal with fertility and reproductive health issues of high merit dairy animals. Use of artificial insemination (AI), embryo transfer technology (ETT), sexed semen, hormonal synchronization/protocols, are employed to improve the performance trait at genetic level.
Artificial insemination
It is an assisted technique used around the globe to deposit high valued selected sire semen directly in a cow’s uterus. This technique has revolutionized the breeding segment with rapid transformation to improve desired production trait through intensive selection in a low-grade herd.
AI has also been advantageous in using old animals of high genetic merit to propagate their germplasm and multiply their progeny in wider range of area and animals. It also prevents discarding of high genetic potential diseases due to any venereal diseases since it reduces risk of s disease transmissions. AI reduced the expenses of use of superior quality semen and risk of sire rearing and ownership.
Embryo transfer technology (ETT)
It is the advance tool to upgrade a herd with high quality females with high production potential within a short span of times. Here elite female can produce multiple ova under hormonal therapy which are fertilized and transferred to other low genetic potential cows to nurture them in gestation till parturition. This helps to generate large number of high performing animals at once having genetic makeup of elite sire and dam.
Sexed semen
In dairy sector male animals are considered half of the herd. Sire with high GEBV (genomically estimated breeding value) are only useful and needed for breeding purpose while the male progeny of low producing cows is not useful instead, they are competing for feed resources with productive animals.
To overcome the problem of unwanted male progeny a technique of segregated semen is discovered which only allows “Y” chromosomes bearing sperm cells in AI transmission.by sorting X chromosomes are removed from semen to allow only female calf as female progeny are the future productive cattle of the dairy sector. This sexed semen has relieved the dairy sector from unwanted burden of resources exploitation.
Hormonal synchronization/protocols:
There is a quote that a dairy farm could be of good productivity if its animal produces one calf every year without miss since this helps to maintain a good synchrony between lactation and dry and service period and the animals yield efficiently. In large dairy farms grouped calving or desired calving is the most desired to raise the profit margin as grouped calving reduce the labor, feeding, postpartum care constant allows efficient management.
Since every animal is in at any point of time different estrous stage which has different requirements but markets demand a constant supply of milk and milk products regardless of the season thus calving has to match with demand and season without a lag. Hormonal synchronization helps in MOET, ovum pick up technique and embryo manipulation of superior germplasm to achieve the high production target from semen doses from elite bulls.
Management strategies:
Once the genotype and phenotypic expression, physical health of dairy animals are taken care their production couldn’t be reached to its full potential till the microenvironment surrounding them is not enough management to optimum conditions. Building a hygenic conditions around the herd helps in optimum expression of their genetic potential. Organized housing shed, watering system, manure disposal, temperature and weather micromanagement prevent animals from diseases and stress.
Housing management
Dairy animals must be housed in proper ventilated shed with semi-intensive system having open and closed area for proper movement to maintain thrifty condition within space. The manger of dairy animals should be separate for each individual to control portion requirement for each. The water should be available 24*7 in clean pan as nearly 3 liter of water is needed to produce 1 liter of milk, shed floor and walls should be checked for any parasitic infestation as it reduces the production severely in dairy animals along with general health.
Health record management:
It is one of the crucial aspects of management where we keep an eye on estrous cycle, vaccination schedule, AI timing, possible calving date, and other health issues which helps to work on the principle of prevention is better than loss/cure. This record helps proper programming of next step in life of dairy animal to prevent the loss of yield in the coming year.
Digitalization of farm practices:
This is general doesn’t seem relevant to the productivity of dairy animals but it does have an indirect relation to the animals health and production with higher farm efficiency. If the farm practices are mechanized and digitalized then it would reduce the labour cost, profit margin, higher accuracy towards detection of heat, stress and diseases along with a close watch towards animal record. Use of heat detector devices prevent missing of heat and loss of production. Use of record devices and digital milking pan works with higher efficiency and low cross contamination.
Government policies:
In India most of government subsidies and policies are useful for large and medium dairy farms. For small scale marginal farmer with lesser number subsidies benefit couldn’t be avenue either they are not knowledgeable or their farm couldn’t meet the qualification conditions. However, they have an important place as the dairy stake holders has an important role in economy as their number is much higher than medium and large farms. Hence the policies should focus more on such group of producers to change their attitude, knowledge and skill for towards innovativeness and for motivating them towards sustainable dairy farming.
Conclusion
The low productivity of Indian dairy animals is a multifaceted issue requiring a holistic approach. By addressing genetic, nutritional, healthcare, socio-economic, and policy challenges, and leveraging modern technologies, India can significantly enhance the productivity of its dairy sector. This will not only improve the livelihoods of millions of dairy farmers but also strengthen the country’s position as a leading milk producer on the global stage.
