WINDHOEK – It is that time of the year again when animals are subjected to considerable nutritional stress and when farmers look hopefully for some sort of relief from a parched environment in order to provide much-needed nutritional relief.
It is again that time when farmers gaze out wistfully across a parched veld which, in the summer rainy season, is green and nutritious. Not so in the dry season months. Not only is the grass dry but it is unpalatable and the protein level would have dropped to about three percent. Much of the carbohydrate also cannot be utilised as it is in an indigestible form. It can be a tauntingly hopeless situation, especially when there is an abundance of this grass, says Mike Duncan of Virbac Animal Health. The question arises: “Why should livestock eat this grass?” After all it is dry, unpalatable and low in nutrients. Surely it makes more sense to find something more attractive and nutritious for these animals to eat in the drier months? Wrong! Dry grass, depending on the type of grass, can provide valuable roughage in the drier months and some nutrients too.
It is a common practice among stockmen to supplement or maintain livestock with manufactured feed concentrates in winter. However, it is also a common misconception that if the correct amount of supplement is offered, that this is all that is needed. This is only partly true. Supplements without roughage limit the effectiveness of the supplements if the required amounts of roughage are not given. If the intake of roughage can be increased, intake and effectiveness of the supplemented feed will increase proportionately.
It is important in the drier months to ensure that roughage is available. This can take the form of either grass or crop residue, i.e. maize stover. In many cases the ability of livestock to consume more dry roughage material is limited; this is due to a number of factors: first and foremost is the fact that dry roughage in the form of grass or maize stover is relatively unpalatable; secondly, the rumen microbe populations of ruminant livestock are reduced in drier periods. This is the result of the animal eating mainly dry material. Consequently the ability of the digestive system to process large quantities of grass or maize stover is also reduced since microbes play an important part in breaking down this material. This in turn reduces the animal’s ability to utilize supplementary feed effectively.
By Deon Schlechter