Tips for the dry season
By Erastus Ngaruka|
Many farming areas in Namibia have received above-average rainfall compared to some of the previous seasons. The productivity of some rangelands has improved in some areas, although the quality of the grazing materials is still not the finest.
However, the animals’ body conditions are good enough. It is important to note that the quantity and quality of available grazing materials directly affect livestock endurance until the next rainy season.
To this end, the next rainy season cannot be predicted with certainty, as information or warnings of a possible El Niño effect are being reported.
Thus, farmers need to continuously ensure that the survival and performance of their livestock are not compromised by maintaining them in favorable health and nutritional conditions.
The normal dry season is basically characterized by two adverse conditions, namely, dry-cold and dry-hot, which threaten livestock health, nutrition, and reproductive performance.
Hence, livestock management approaches should be proactively responsive to prevailing environmental conditions.
On the topic of nutritional supplementation, livestock require a sufficient supply of nutrients throughout the year as a response to seasonal changes in rangeland conditions and body demands.
Grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep are the most vulnerable to nutritional deficiency, especially mineral deficiencies because the soil-mineral concentration, especially in sandy areas, is beyond the grass root zones for uptake.
During the rainy season or the summer months, focus has been on mineral supplementation, with greater emphasis on phosphorus, as it is deficient in soils. Phosphorus plays a vital role in metabolic functions, among others, especially when animal feed intake is higher.
As winter approaches, the grasses stop growing and enter the dormancy period where nutrients are relocated to be stored in the root system as reserves for regrowth in the next season.
During this time, grass dries up, sheds seeds and in the process, vitamin A and much of the protein are lost.
Therefore, farmers need to inoculate their animals with vitamin A and to provide protein supplements. One of the ingredients used in the winter supplements is urea as it enhances the digestion of dry forage materials through increased population and strength of the rumen microorganisms responsible for digestion in ruminant animals.
Later in the dry season, especially from August, the animal’s demand for energy increases as the grass plants become depleted, scarcer, or grazed to the maximum.
Thus, energy supplements need to be added to the protein supplements, and in certain cases, especially when there is a grazing shortage, roughage feeds or hay will be needed to fill the rumen.
Since many farmers have planted crops, they can cheaply use processed crop residues as dry season feed supplements. For example, residues from beans, maize, mahangu and others.
Further, forage materials such as camelthorn pods, grass, and cultivated pasture plants such as lucerne, lab-lab, salt bush, etc. can form part of the farm fodder flow plan as feed resources every year.
– Nr Erastus Ngaruka is the Technical Advisor on Livestock and Rangeland at the Agricultural bank of Namibia (AgriBank).
