Lush to rush

Most nations in the world are currently facing an unprecedented increase in population and environmental issues which have posed a threat to food security in the respective countries. To feed this growing population, there must be a corresponding increase in food production.

Nutrient-rich foods will be one of the solutions important in ensuring that the global population is nourished. Milk and its products are well-established as foods with high nutrient content recommended to alleviate food insecurity. Global milk production for human consumption is in excess of 800 million tons per year. Milk is produced by ruminants, and 81% of 2018 milk production was cow’s milk, with 15% from buffalo and 4% from goats, sheep, and camels. To increase milk production, particularly in the sub-Saharan region, increasing productivity in our local breeds is key.

This piece focused on the performances of cattle offered hydroponically grown fodder in the Paikon kore grazing reserve, Gwagwalada Area of Abuja. Paikon kore is a pastoralist community, which contains different villages sparsely distributed in the forest. The pastoralists who are predominantly Fulanis are smallholder cattle rearers who rely on a native mixed crop-ruminant system of cattle production.

Tradition VS Innovation.

Dry season feeding for ruminants in Nigeria comes with a lot of challenges, this is because most ruminant farmers rely on the natural pastures and crop residue as the major source of feed for their stocks. Natural pasture is limited in quantity and quality during the dry season, attributable to low rainfall and increase in the fibre content of the forages. High fibre content decreases digestibility and nutrient availability to the animals. The use of alternative feed resources to supplement the impaired natural pasture during the dry season is on the increase. Hydroponically grown fodders (HGF) pose to be a feedstuff that can be utilised to ameliorate the dry season feeding in ruminants, and the advantages of feeding HGF will be presented in this write up.

Feeding of HGF is similar to the zero grazing system or the cut and carry system. This system contradicts the practices of the Cattle rearers. At this point, we took a flash back to Sprint 5 where we enlightened the cattle rearers on the benefits of feeding HGF to their livestocks. The research team combated myths and other traditional practices, and at last we succeeded in having the farmers giving their stocks as experimental units.

A taste is convincing.

Following on from Sprint 5, our trainees and herders were ready for daily production of HGF, and Tobi, the Livestock Specialist who led a research team was on-site for research to be conducted. Twenty-four (24) lactating (white Fulani) cattle were selected for the trials, similarly ten (10) animals were employed as the control treatment. The research spanned 56 days (11/12/2022–04/02/2023). Our research team commenced with an acceptability trial with the selected cattle. It was a “woah” time for the herders to see the high acceptability as there were speculations and myths among the herders that cattle can only consume forages grown on soil alone. The acceptability trial showed that the HGF were well relished by the animals. Prior to the on-site experiments, samples of HGF were taken for chemical composition assessment. The proximate composition and fibre fractions were determined for Guinea corn (Sorghum bicolor), Maize (Zea mays) and Millet (Pennisetum glaucum). The dry matter content was utilized in estimating the dry matter intake of the animals and were therefore offered 4% of their body weight. Morphometric data (Heart girth circumference and body length) were recorded for both dietary treatments (Control and the HGF group). These measurements were taken and recorded for the determination of initial live weight (Body weight) as baseline data for a starting point. Data collected on the chemical composition were subjected to a one-way analysis of variance, and means were separated using Duncan multiple range test of Statistical Analysis Software. Seed type was used as the single source of variation.

Results obtained from chemical composition showed that the crude protein (CP) content of these HGFs is higher than the CP for most grasses available in natural pasture or range land. Panicum maximum (Guinea grass) have been described as one of the most abundant grasses in Nigeria and have a reported CP value of 7.38–9.65%. The CP obtained for HGF is higher than the National Research Council (NRC) requirement (8% CP) for rumen functioning. Furthermore, the chemical composition also influenced our choice for the HGF to be tested on the field. Two major reasons influenced our choice (1) Seed type with less competitive use for human consumption and other classes of livestock (2) A HGF with high nutritive value. These factors informed the choice of Sorghum bicolor (Guinea corn) as the HGF employed for the feeding trials. HGF was offered as a supplemental diet (i.e 50% of the daily need of an animal). This trial was carried out during the dry season when natural and native pastures are not readily available.

HGF: A feed of wholeness

Our core interest was divided into four areas namely:

1. Health status of the animals
2. Milk production and quality improvement
3. Environmental impact of feeding HGF
4. Performance evaluation and Nutrient Utilisation of the cattle fed HGF

Health Status of the animals

Good health status of an animal is the foundation for one health initiative, as a healthy animal will give a healthy product and prevent zoonotic diseases. Blood samples were collected (before and after trials) via the jugular vein for full blood count and some serum biochemical responses. Results obtained showed improvement in the health status of the animals after the trial, which implies that feeding of HGFs to cattle did not have deleterious effects on the health status of the animals. Also, the results of the liver enzymes indicated that the normal functioning of the organ as the HGF ingested by the animals did not contain any form of toxins that can impair liver functions.

More Milk, better quality

Baseline data collected before the feeding trials revealed an average daily milk production of 0.7–1 litre/day. We recorded an average milk volume of 2 litre/ animal /day after 48 hrs of feeding HGF, which peaked at 3.6–4.6 litre/animal/day by the fifth week of the feeding trial for animals on the HGF diets. Animals in the control diet group (animals without HGF) maintained their plane of less than a litre /animal/day. This is awesome output, as it indicated a whooping 400% increase in daily milk production per animal.

The increased production volume was complimented with a better quality. The milk test result revealed better quality for animals on HGF than the control. The milk fat value (3.84 vs 1.91%) and Lactose (5.24 vs 3.76%) figures implies that the HGF was sufficient for basic body functioning and production.

HGF: Environment friendly lush

Greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions from agriculture are raising serious concerns globally. Cattle is one of the major contributors to the GHG emissions. Feed and feeding strategies have been described as a way of reducing methane emission from ruminants, most especially cattle.

In vitro methods for laboratory estimations of degraded feeds are important for ruminant feed assessment. It is an efficient laboratory method that produces results that correlate well with measured in vivo (on-site demonstration) parameters. In vitro methods have the advantage of being less expensive and less time-consuming and allow for maintenance of experimental conditions more precisely than in vivo trials. Feed to be assessed with in vitro method undergoes incubation with rumen liquor for twenty-four hours under an anaerobic condition. During incubation, feed is degraded by rumen microbes and gases are liberated to indicate digestibility. The volume of gases produced indicates the degradation/digestibility of the feed. Also, the degradation process is terminated with the introduction of sodium hydroxide during which methane production will be estimated.

The three selected HGF were employed for this trial. To obtain a balanced view, three (3) forages, namely: Guinea grass (Panicum maximum), Elephant grass (Pennisetum purpurem) and Lablab were incubated as well. Rumen liquor was collected from abattoir, it was sieved using a four-layer cheesecloth and was mixed with (1:2) McDoughald buffer solution (B.S). The 200mg sample/30ml (Rumen liquor + Mcdoughald B.S) was incubated according to the syringe method of Menke and Steingass. All procedures were done under an anaerobic condition of Co2 reflux. After the incubation period of 24 hours, the incubation was terminated by introducing 4.0ml of 10.0M Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution into the syringe through the silicon tubes to absorb the Carbon (IV) oxide (CO2) gas, which resulted in the formation of Sodium Carbonate (Na2CO3) solution and methane gas.

Total gas production volume was higher for HGFs at 24 hours of incubation than the native pastures (Maize, Millet and Sorghum had 35.3, 36 and 32.7ml/200mg respectively; while Guinea grass, Elephant grass and Lablab had 19.5, 14 and 17.5ml/200mg respectively). This indicates rapid degradation of HGFs by the rumen microorganism. High gas production is an indication of good digestibility, from the result it can be said that HGFs are 100% more digestible than the native pastures.

Furthermore, results obtained showed that Maize, Millet and Sorghum had 28.3, 31.5 and 24.4% respectively; while Guinea grass, Elephant grass and Lablab had 51.3, 50 and 53.4% respectively, of methane in the total gas produced. Methane is regarded as energy loss to the animals and implies that HGF was able to reduce methane emissions from enteric fermentation by 50%. Other parameters like Metabolizable energy and Organic matter digestibility indicated that HGFs had higher (P<0.05) values than the native forages, which is a direct link to their potential of providing higher energy to the animals. The results of this feeding trial have revealed that methane emissions from cattle can be reduced by 50% when HGFs are used as a feed resource. Similarly, HGFs have shown to be more digestible (100%) than the natural pastures. This implies that animals fed HGFs will have more available nutrients supplied for maintaining basal body metabolism and improve productivity (Milk or Meat).

HGF: Feed to gain.

Growth and muscle building are good indicators of performance evaluation in growth trials. Average daily gain (ADG) is an index for growth performance, ADG is defined as the body weight increase of an animal per day from consumption of a particular ration. The average daily gain recorded ranged from 400–786g/day for animals on HGF while animals without HGF supplementation recorded less than 240g/day/animal. The high ADG recorded for these animals implies the sufficiency of HGF for cow maintenance and growth.

Conclusion

The study has suggested that the benefits of feeding HGF are enormous, and I regard the feed as a complete diet because of its interwoven benefits. HGF poses as a driver to turn around the beef and dairy sectors in Nigeria. However, sustainability and a business model for delivering HGF to cattle should be explored further.