FEED QUANTITY OPTIMIZATION FOR SMALL DAIRY FARMERS OF ANAND DISTRICT OF GUJARAT

SANJIV KUMAR¹*, SHAKTI RANJAN PANIGRAHY², PREM CHAND MEENA³, DHARMENDRA KUMAR^4
1Agribusiness Management Division, ICAR- National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, 500 030, India
²International Agri-Business Management Institute, Anand Agricultural University, Anand, 388110, Gujarat, India
³Agribusiness Management Division, ICAR- National Academy of Agricultural Research Management, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, 500 030, India
⁴Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Banka, Bihar, India
* Corresponding Author : drsanjivkr@gmail.com

Received : 16-09-2016     Accepted : 05-10-2016     Published : 01-11-2016
Volume : 8     Issue : 53       Pages : 2733 - 2738
Int J Agr Sci 8.53 (2016):2733-2738

Keywords : Linear Programming, Least Cost Ration Formulation, Dairy, Feed Optimization
Academic Editor : Murali S
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : None declared
Author Contribution : None declared

Dairy farmers are feeding locally available green and dry fodder along with concentrate to the animals. The availability of these feed and fodder varies with season and region. Farmers feed the animals whatever is available with them or in the market without considering the nutritive value and end up spending more money or feeding imbalanced feed to the animals. The study was undertaken in Anand district of Gujarat in India to find out the lowest possible combination of feed and fodder to be fed to buffalo yielding 6 liters or more milk per day and are in early lactation. The area is dominated by buffalo among the dairy animal population in the study area which formed the basis for selection. Simple method of linear programming was used to arrive at the least cost combination using Excel solver. The study indicated that for a buffalo weighing 450 kg and yielding 10 litres of milk in a daywith 6% fat can be fed with 14.32 Kg of green maize fodder, 2.03 kg of paddy straw, 11.81 kg of soyabean straw and 4.82 kg of cotton seed cake, for which the feed cost per litre milk production comes out to be Rs. 21.23, besides meeting all the nutrient requirements.