Vegetable Waste as Cattle Feed
Vegetable Waste as Livestock Feed
Vegetable waste includes rotten, peels (Banana Peel), shells, and scraped portions of vegetables or slurries. These wastes can be treated for biofuel production through fermentation under controlled conditions or else used for composting. One of the ways to reduce the cost of feeding cows without compromising their health is to consider innovative ways of feeding, which of course will depend on the availability of local feed resources. In the last series, we have published on this portal articles on how failed crops (due to water stress or excess or some disease) could be salvaged as cattle feed. It may be pointed out salvaging failed crops as cattle feed in collaboration with crop insurance companies has assumed business proportion and there is potential in India too.
India is the second-largest producer of vegetables in the world, but, around 40 to 50 percent of the total output valued at $ 440 billion is reported to go waste. As per ASSOCHAM published report India has around 6,300 cold storage facilities with a total capacity of 30.11 million tons which is barely enough for 11 percent of the country’s total perishable produce. The non-availability of alternate uses to such crops also causes distress and losses to farmers. Within India, the situation is quite severe in Southern states which are also major vegetable cultivating areas. Creating storage facilities will need huge investment and recurrent expenses on electricity hence may be a feasible solution for high-value crops.
Fortunately, vegetables can be used as livestock feed, especially leafy vegetables as they are rich in fiber. In many countries, it is common to use agricultural wastes or excess produce as livestock feed if it satisfies sanitary and safety requirements. In India too, small farmers do use vegetables for feeding small or big ruminants but this is at the individual level and restricts to either area around vegetable markets or periods when there is a glut in the availability of vegetables and prices have crashed. Preservation of vegetables as silage for cattle would be an energy-sparing proposition as this can be done following an anaerobic fermentation technique using plastic bags of varying sizes. Vegetable crops can be divided into two major groups, leafy which will be rich in fiber, and starchy which are rich in starch, such as, potato, sweet potato, carrots, turnip, etc. Such starchy vegetables can be used as a substitute for commercial concentrate feed. Rearing calf is expensive because being monogastric these need starch as a major source of energy.
Collection and processing of excess vegetables may not be a feasible proposal for individual farmers, but this can be taken up as a business venture by educated youth who are looking for venturing into rural business.
An excellent monograph has been published on the topic by FAO written by Indian researchers. This topic is very relevant to India. We are posting this article, with due acknowledgment to FAO and the researchers, with the hope that this will stimulate a new wave in waste utilization of vegetable waste/excess.
Please do send your comments and would be delighted to hear from farmers and entrepreneurs any success story related to this topic.
FAQ Article on Vegetable Waste
Read more: Use of Whole Sugarcane as Cattle Fodder
Dr. Abdul Samad
Dairy Consultant
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