Animal Feed Technology

The shortage of feed in terms of quality and quantity during the dry season is one of the most serious problems faced by farmers in the northeast of Nigeria.

In this area, roughages from farms are the main feeds for livestock, mainly composed of cattle, sheep, and goat.

Even today, shortage pushes Fulani ethnic group to drive cattle during dryseason to wet regions in the center of the country. conflicts .

Converting Typha grass into silage will create economic incentives for cleaning waterways and other priority areas and will help to control the play Typha invasion that you have taken place in.

Moreover, the novel use of Typha silage may create opportunities to eliminate constraints to expand the livestock herd . This justifies the enthusiasm and willingness to adopt revealed by participants.

The novel feeding technology

Typha’s green part silage will provide a good quality feed ingredient to overcome shortage during dry season. 

This project aims to apply novel processes to optimize the use of Typha as a valuable ingredient for animal productionproduction  in an economic and sustainable manner.

Even though Typha forage can be consumed directly as feed for cattle, it is not as desirable as corn because of its higher fiber content and the less well-defined nutritive value.

Improving the processing conditions of the forage before ensiling with the addition of microorganisms, enzymes, and other silage additives can help improve digestibility of Typha. 

Prof. Kohn’s research, from the University of Maryland, suggests the use of microorganisms from the cattle rumen. This solution will minimize dependency on foreign countries to have access to the use of enzymes and silage additives.