Our Correspondent
Islamabad
National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) holds Farmer’s Field Day on ALP Project Entitled “Evaluation of Maize Stovers and Maize Cobs as Feed Sources for Ruminants” at Pukhral Zari Farm, 35 Km Rawat Chak Beli Road, on 26th June, 2019.
The Director General, National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) Dr. Ghulam Muhammad Ali while addressing the participants of the field day said Livestock has an important role in promoting socioeconomic development in rural areas. Livestock has potential for poverty alleviation. PARC/NARC animal scientists are striving for the betterment of livestock farmers in Pakistan.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Johar Ali, Member, Animal Sciences Division (ASD), PARC said by increasing the beef production farming, not only we can overcome the shortage of proteins of animal origin but also increase the income of the farmers.
There is a great scope for beef export. Dr. Zia ul Hasan, Director, ASD, PARC presented the overall view of the PARC. He highlighted the various research activities related to the livestock. Haji Saqib Raza, Owner of the Farm shared his experience with reference to livestock farming and appreciated this activity for the benefit of the farming community.
Dr. M. Iqbal Anjum, Project Incharge shared the detailed information on feeds and nutrition of cattle and buffaloes. He highlighted that according to an estimates, about 60 to 70% of the cost on rearing of livestock is on feeding.
There are two main parts of livestock feeding i.e., roughages and concentrates. Wheat straw (WS) as dry roughages is being used from 25-50% of livestock feeding. Recent past the price of wheat straw is increases ranging from 20-25 Rs/kg. In this scenario the maize stovers (MS) and cobs (MC) are one of the main crop straws characterized by multi-source, abundance, low cost, less competitive usage, and great potential for development and utilization. About 22.8 million tons of MS and MC are produced annually and mostly burnt as fuel purposes. In different feed experimentation MS, MC and WS were used from 25 to 60% with concentrate combinations and obtained body weights from 600-850 gram per day.
The use of maize stovers and maize cobs instead of wheat straw not only reduces the feeding cost from 25 to 30% but can also improve the production performance of the livestock. The maize cobs are more palatable to animals than maize stovers and wheat straw and the animals had gained more body weight.
