Tropical Dairy Farming Feeding Management for Small Holder Dairy Farmers in the Humid Tropics

About this book

Tropical Dairy Farming is a manual designed for use by dairy production advisors working in tropical areas, especially in South-East Asia. It aims to increase the productivity of small holder dairy farmers in the humid tropics by improving the feeding management of their livestock. It shows how to provide dairy cows with cost-effective feeds that match small holder farming systems and discusses the major obstacles to improving feeding management in the humid tropics.

The author shows the benefits and drawbacks of various feed components and the calculation of balanced diets based mainly on forages combined with some supplementary feeding. Diseases and problems associated with unbalanced diets are also covered, as well as important information on growing and conserving quality forages as silage.

The book draws on examples from a variety of countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, China, East Timor and the Philippines.

Contents

- Introduction
- Tropical dairy systems
- Small holder dairying
- What is in feeds?
- How the rumen works
- Nutrient requirements of dairy cows
- How feed requirements change during lactation
- Growing quality forages
- Making quality silage
- Supplements for milking cows
- Milk responses to supplements
- Formulating a diet
- Problems with unbalanced diets
- Diet and milk production
- Nutrition and fertility
- Nutrition and young stock
- Economics of milk production
- Body condition scoring
- Overcoming environmental constraints to cow performance
- Future developments in feeding management in the humid tropics

Appendices

Customer Reviews

Biography

Dr John Moran, a dairy adviser with the Victorian government, has lived and worked in Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and China) over many years and has written several books on management of dairy stock. His initial training in a systems approach to livestock science, with his many years working closely with the dairy industries of Australia and South-East Asia, stands him in great stead to write this book. This is both a training manual of dairy cow nutrition plus a series of observations on how successful and profitable small holder farmers manage their dairy herds.

Dr John Moran is a senior scientist at Kyabram Dairy Research Centre DPI (Victoria) and is deeply involved with improving the profitability of cattle producers in the dairy and beef industries.