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Abstract
1. Introduction
1
Livestock Health and Farming
systems, contributing more than 75% of the total variable costs of production [2, 3].
Thus, a comprehensive inventory of animal feeds and feeding systems in semi-arid
areas will inform sustainable livestock production.
Rangeland productivity, i.e. the amount of available grazing and browse per
square area per unit time, is a proxy indicator of sustainability of livestock-based
rural livelihoods. In recent years, climate change and variability, among other
factors, has resulted in the declines in the quality and quantity of the rangelands
in semi-arid areas such as the South East Lowveld (SEL) of Zimbabwe [4–7].
Additionally, in these areas, while Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) have
been established mainly to facilitate sustainable livelihoods, global biodiversity con-
servation, regional peace, and sustainable socio-economic development of African
communities through the cooperation at local and international levels [8], they
are also likely to increase interaction between wildlife, livestock, and humans with
adverse consequences. For instance, due to increased human and livestock popula-
tions in surrounding agricultural areas, cattle are likely to encroach more into
wildlife areas in search of feed [9]. Therefore, a deeper comprehension of animal
feeds and feeding will improve livestock production and consequently transform
rural livelihoods.
Innovations in livestock husbandry are the activities and processes associated
with the generation, production, dissemination, adaptation, and use of existing
or new technical, institutional, and organisational knowledge [10, 11]. Although
there are different innovations in livestock feeds and feeding, most of them have
not been adopted by farmers [12]. For instance, [12] showed that discontinuance
of urea treatment of maize stover for livestock supplementation was attributed
to high labour requirements of preparing the stover, lack of monitoring by
extension services, and inaccessibility of urea fertiliser. It is thus important for
the policy to consider such factors as the economic environment, availability
of local material, and social and human capital when promoting livestock
production systems. In this chapter, we explore and explain different livestock
feeds and feeding strategies that are mostly adopted in semi-arid areas. We also
recommend other alternatives that have a potential of adaption for increased
livestock production.
The study was carried out in the semi-arid South East Lowveld (SEL) of
Zimbabwe. The area is found at an altitude of 300–600 m above mean sea level [11].
It experiences mean maximum and minimum temperatures of 21.8°C in October
and 13.3°C in June, respectively, and mean annual rainfall of 300–600 mm between
November and March and is characterised by high interannual variability (coef-
ficient of variation ≈ 4045%) [13]. The major soil types are basalt-derived vertisols.
Other soil types include eutric fluvisols, leptosols, and chromic luvisols [14]. The
two main land uses in the area are agricultural production in the communal areas
and wildlife conservation in Gonarezhou National Park and Malipati Safari Area,
both of which form part of the Great Limpopo TFCA that contains a wide range of
wildlife species such as Loxodonta africana (the elephant), Giraffa camelopardalis
(giraffe), and Syncerus caffer (African buffalo). A communal land is a land category
characterised by collective or community land ownership [15]. Livestock produc-
tion is the major source of livelihoods in the communal area, while small grains and
maize are also commonly grown.
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Livestock Feeds and Feeding in Semi-Arid Areas of Southern Africa
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90109
In the SEL, poor-quality cereal crop residues (less than 4% crude protein)
form the bulk of livestock supplementary feed in the dry season, which normally
extends from May/June to October/November. The predominant crops are sor-
ghum, millet, and maize. However, they are deficient in essential nutrients such
as protein, phosphorus, calcium, and, to some extent, energy [22]. Such supple-
ments have low feed intake resulting from low degradability and low digestibility.
Therefore, they do not provide for optimum microbial growth in the rumen. As
a result, animals raised on these low nutritive feeds exhibit poor condition and
reduced reproductive performance [23]. Crop residues are managed in many ways
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Livestock Health and Farming
Figure 1.
The grazing resource during dry seasons in the South East Lowveld of Zimbabwe.
Figure 2.
Maize stover forms part of the bulk of cereal stover supplements in the dry season.
for livestock feeding. Cereal stovers are either grazed in situ or stored in stacks for
supplementation during the dry season (Figure 2). During prolonged dry seasons,
the first preference is for maintenance of productive animals such as lactating
cows or the sick. Haulms from leguminous crops such as cowpea and groundnuts
are also used in stall-feeding. Despite being of higher nutritive value than cereal
stovers, they have limited availability as leguminous crops are not commonly
cultivated at large scale. Recently, conservation agriculture has presented conflict
of interest in utilisation of crop residues. Conservation agriculture is a farming
method that utilises crop residues to retain moisture and enrich the soil [24].
Increased adoption of conservation agriculture creates limitations in the availabil-
ity of crop residues for livestock feeding.
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Livestock Feeds and Feeding in Semi-Arid Areas of Southern Africa
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90109
Table 1.
List of indigenous browse trees in the SEL.
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Livestock Health and Farming
SEL during the dry season limits their availability in the rest of the season [29].
Fresh leaves of species such as C. mopane, for instance, are high in tannins and lignin
[30, 31]. Additionally, indigenous browse species normally attract multiple uses at
the livestock-wildlife interface with the more visible, more dominant, and more
frequent browse species having more uses than less apparent plants [32]. They are
used as sources of firewood, timber, fruits, edible roots, bark and leaves, and human
and ethnoveterinary medicines [33–36]. Competitive use increases vulnerability to
overutilisation, unsustainable harvesting, and mismanagement.
Fodder refers to any plants grown specifically as animal feed. They include a vari-
ety of pasture grasses like Panicum maximum, Cenchrus ciliaris, and Chloris gayana;
pasture legumes such as Vigna unguiculata, Dolichos lablab, and Macroptilium atro-
purpureum; and fodder trees such as Leucaena leucocephala, Acacia angustissima, and
Calliandra calothyrsus. However, most of them do not thrive in semi-arid areas such
as the SEL due to high temperatures and low precipitation. Low adoption of fodder
crop production is also attributed to lack of extension for farmer training, shortage
of labour due to overlapping of the farming calendar with the main crop, high cost
and unavailability of seed, and land scarcity. It is therefore important for farmers to
maximise production of those species adaptable to their climatic conditions.
There are different food industry by-products and agricultural wastes that are
alternative dry season livestock feed supplements. These can be of animal and
plant origin or of the fermentation industry. Animal by-products include blood,
bones, meat and bone offals, fat, intestine and rumen contents, whey, tannery
by-products, and poultry manure [1]. By-products of plant origin consist those
of the milling industry (e.g. bran, waste flour), oil industry (e.g. soya bean and
sunflower cakes), sugar industry (molasses), and citrus and horticulture waste. The
fermentation industry produces grain, molasses, and brewer’s waste, among a large
array of other by-products. By-products of plant origin are the commonly used. For
instance, in the SEL, molasses is readily available as the main sugarcane processing
factories in Zimbabwe are located in that area. However, high cost of transportation
Figure 3.
Browse trees provide feed during the dry season when both the grazing resource and cereal stovers become
limiting.
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Livestock Feeds and Feeding in Semi-Arid Areas of Southern Africa
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90109
makes the product often quite expensive. Additionally, those of plant origin are also
mostly based on staple food crops such as maize and soya bean, creating competi-
tion in use between humans and livestock.
3.2.2 Silages
Silage is forage produced from the fermentation process of chopped fresh green
material under anaerobic conditions. These materials include fodder or forage
grasses. Ensiling maize has been shown to improve feed digestibility and reduce
methane gas production by 30% compared to feeding dry maize [37]. However,
despite silages being advantageous in areas of water shortages, as well as reducing
tannins due to the heat produced during the incubation period, silage production is
not common among farmers.
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Livestock Health and Farming
Undesirable plants are not readily utilised by animals and may cause rangeland
degradation. They include invasive species (e.g. Dichrostachys cinerea) and poison-
ous species (e.g. Lantana camara and Solanum incanum). They may be removed by
stumping, ring barking, and application of chemicals such as arboricides, using hot
prescribed fires or mechanical means like bulldozers, motorised saws, and brush
cutters.
Range rehabilitation is the restoration of the veld using such methods as gulley
filling and planting grass lines. However, it is more feasible at small scale. Both
communal and private enclosures have also been successfully used to rehabilitate
rangelands [45, 46].
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Livestock Feeds and Feeding in Semi-Arid Areas of Southern Africa
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90109
4. Conclusions
Acknowledgements
Conflict of interest
Author details
© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.
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