More than 50% of Nepal's population lives in the hill regions, usually with small land holdings, and over 60% are considered below the poverty line. Livestock, and particularly goats, provide these small-scale farmers with about 55% of their on-farm income. We studied goat production in Katteldanda, a mid-hill village of 78 households, mainly Brahmins, in Ghorka District. Subsistence farmers raise six or seven goats and one or two buffalo, and cultivate mainly maize, millet and rice. Tree fodder constituted about 70% of dry matter intake of goats for large parts of the year and was collected by lopping branches from trees on upland, rain-watered, private terraces (bari) near the household compound. Local farmers ranked the fodder trees they considered best and we measured the actual fodder they offered to goats. In addition, we evaluated and ranked 23 fodder species on the basis of laboratory in vitro nutritional and metabolizable energy yields. Using a Mantel test, a significant correlation was found between what the farmers thought was best fodder and fodder offered to goats (Mantel r=0.398; P= 0.037) but non-significant correlations were found between either what the farmers thought was best fodder or fodder offered to goats and laboratory rankings (Mantel r=−0.027; P=0.49 and Mantel r=0.187; P=0.18, respectively). We concluded that biomass produced and availability throughout the year, in addition to nutritional and energy yield, are important criteria for selecting fodder trees for goat production.

Protein need for small holder dairy animals is very limited. Considering this problem one on-station and one on-farm trails were conducted in 2013 and 2014 in Nepal respectively. In on-station trial (2013) 15 milking buffaloes were randomly assigned to 5 dietary treatments (0, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 kg de-oiled soybean meals/day/buffalo) and in on-farm trial (2014), 20 milking buffaloes were assigned to 0.5 kg de-oiled soybean meal/day/buffalo for two months dry period. From on-station trial, significantly higher (42 %) milk production was observed from 0.5 kg and 1 kg de-oiled soybean meal/day/buffalo feeding groups. From the on-farm trials in village dairy buffaloes 20 percent milk production increment was observed compared with the normal farmer's feeding practices (de-oiled soybean meals unfed condition). It was concluded that, in addition to normal diet, 0.5 to 1 kg de-oiled soybean meal (depending up on the body weight of animal and feeding situation) per day feeding as bypass protein sources could be beneficial during dry period where green fodder is scarce to maintain milk production from dairy animals.

Nine buffalo calves were subjected to three fodder tree species namely; Nimaro (Ficus roxburghii), Dhalne Katus (Castanopsis indica) and Rai Khanyu (Ficus cunia) for digestibility trial during November 27 and December 3, 2005 in Regional Agricultural Research Station, Lumle, Kaski, Nepal. Animals were kept 7 days for adaptation for these fodders. Weighed   amount of fodder tree leaves including twigs and small branches were fed   two times a day and observation on fodder offered, refused and faeces voided   were recorded daily. Chemical composition of fresh matter and faeces voided   were carried out for dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), lignin, calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P). The mean DM content and their dry matter digestibility (DMD) of these three fodder tree species were found 27.86, 46.02, 34.72, 73.21, 65.93 and 71.28 percent, respectively. Strong negative correlations   (r=-0.75 to –0.78; p<0.05) were observed between Ca and CP with fiber fraction (NDF and ADF). A weak correlation was also observed between P and other constituents with respect to digestibility. From the results, if there   could be provision of low fiber content in dry season, the three main nutrients (Ca, P and CP) may easily be absorbed by the animals.Nepal Agric. Res. J. Vol. 9, 2009, pp. 94-98DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/narj.v9i0.11646

SU MMARYIn vitro gas production (GP) of substrate incubated with cow rumen liquor is commonly used to evaluate feed nutritional quality ; GP is correlated with organic matter digestibility and metabolizable energy content. The hypothesis tested was that GP differs among liquors of ruminant species and is dependent on the natural dietary intake of the donors. Measurements were of 24 h GP of seven browse species using rumen liquor from a large (cow) and small (sheep) grazer and from a small intermediate feeder (goat). Mean GP for browse with goat liquor (7¡2 . 4 ml per 200 mg substrate) was significantly (P=0 . 019) higher than that with cow liquor (5¡1 . 9 ml), and GP with sheep liquor (6¡1 . 1 ml) was intermediate, not significantly different from the cow liquor (P=0 . 197) and the goat liquor (P=0 . 061). There was a significant correlation in the ranking of the browses between goat and sheep (P=0 . 013) liquor using a Mantel test with 9999 permutations, which indicated a similar ranking of browses when using rumen liquor of either of these small ruminants. There were trends between both cow and sheep (P=0 . 096) and cow and goat (P=0 . 092) liquors. It was concluded that the dietary habits of ruminant species donors may affect in vitro nutritional studies when using rumen liquor.

No abstract