Scientific Fodder Production is a book designed to introduce students to the fundamental concepts related to agriculture and its allied sciences, including agro-meteorology, agronomic practices, manures and fertilizers, and farm machinery. The books primary focus is on fodder production, which covers a range of topics such as inventory management, package of practices, preservation techniques, organic fodder production, and integrated farming systems.
The content is presented in a clear and concise manner, with subheadings for easy comprehension, and exercises are provided at the end of each chapter for practical application. The book also covers important topics such as labor management in farms and the economics of fodder and fodder seed production, which are critical for effective farm management.
This book serves as a valuable resource, providing an up-to-date scientific knowledge base for the target audience and acting as a teacher and trainer guide for efficient fodder production.
Firstly, as authors of the book titled Scientific Fodder Production, we raised a question to ourselves that, what is the need of this book and combined authorship of agriculture and veterinary faculties? In India, animal farming is of agriculture based, often called animal agriculture. Forage or fodder crop production is often used synonymously in text books, though they have slight differences in its meaning and application. Effective production and use of forages is the basis for profitable livestock farming in India where, grains are scarce and costly; forages, fodders, crop residues are relatively cheap for efficient animal feeding regimens. In extensive livestock farming, allowing the animal for grazing is the most cost effective way of feeding, for which good pasture and grazing land management is necessary.a
In broad perspective, agriculture and allied sciences is defined as the art, science and business study of producing crops, livestock, fishery and forestry for food and economic purposes. Considering its broad base of coverage of various items like crop, livestock, fishery and forestry etc., it is generally called as Agriculture and allied sciences. The etymology of the term Agriculture has two Latin words, Agri and Cultura meaning soil and cultivation. In a holistic sense, agriculture is an applied science comprising of the study of plants and animals like crops, fruits, vegetables, livestock and poultry, fishery, forestry and home sciences etc. It is one the core and primary sector of Indian economy.
In broad perspective, plants and crops of agriculture can be classified mainly based on three criterions namely descriptive, ecological and agronomical. Understanding these basic classifications will help us to study the characteristics of each plant in detail. Descriptive Classification In descriptive approach, plants and crops can be classified based on the mode of reproduction, mode of pollination, life span, growth habits and leaf retention property. Sexual and asexual reproducing plants are the two groups based on the mode of reproduction. The sexual reproducing plants are developed from a seed after the union of male and female gametes and asexual plants reproduces through vegetative means and not by male and female gametes.
Meteorology is a branch of physical sciences, which studies the physical properties of earth's atmosphere, and it is a combination of physical and geographical sciences. It is an applied science using the principles of physics to understand the physical state and behaviour of atmosphere. In meteorology, weather describes the physical state of atmosphere of a particular place in a given point of time, usually for a shorter duration. On the other hand, climate describes the state and dynamics of the same set of weather variables of a particular place for a longer period.
Agronomical practices is the collection of operations starts from field formation, tillage, sowing, irrigation, manure and fertilizer management, pest control and harvest etc. Though, the type of agronomical practices varies with the crop, the basic function of various agronomical operations remains the same for all the crops. Considering that, understanding the basics of general agronomical practices is crucial for good agricultural practices and optimum production. Tillage Tillage is the basic activity of preparing the land for the crop production.
Plants requires a number of nutrients for their growth and reproduction, of which six are primary in nature and they are, Carbon - Plants are taking carbon from the air and soil Hydrogen from water Oxygen from water and air Nitrogen from soil and it helps plants to synthesize protein for their growth they need to produce new tissues. Nitrogen is often in shortage in soil for the plants, and plants will try to take as much available from the soil at the same time too much of nitrogen will help the foliage growth and but not the setting of flowers and fruits. Phosphorus stimulates root growth and helps the plants set flowers and seeds. Organic matter and activity of soil organisms increases the availability of phosphorus.
Farm machinery is a range of mechanical implements used in agriculture production from land preparation to harvesting and processing the produce. It includes various ploughs, tractors, broadcaster, harvester and post harvest processing machineries. The purpose of using machines in agriculture production is to handle the mass production, improve the efficiency and to save the labour costs. The types of implements used in fodder production are tillage, sowing, intercultural, plant protection and harvesting equipments.
In broad perspective, forages are plants and crops used for animal feeding. It includes all the natural and cultivated crops, shrubs, and trees etc., used in livestock feeding. Here, fodder specifically denotes the cultivated crops exclusively used for livestock feeding. Though, they are synonymously used in books, a student of veterinary science should able understand the difference between forages and fodder. Fodder is a term mainly used in intensive livestock farming where stall feeding is preferred over grazing to optimize the efficiency of production per unit area. Though, most of the tree's leaves are used for animal feeding, some of the trees being cultivated exclusively for animal feeding and those are called fodder trees and others called as multipurpose trees.
The key characteristic of monsoon based agriculture of India is variability of availability of forage and fodder resources for livestock. In monsoon seasons, fodder availability will be at its peak, and the same will be scarce in dry months. Considering that, preservation of fodder during monsoon months especially through rainfed farming is essential to ensure a fodder supply throughout the year. Preservation of fodder is process of preserving the excess available fodder in a proper form without the loss of nutrients and its palatability.
As per Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), agro forestry represents land-use systems and technologies where trees, shrubs, palms, bamboos, etc. are deliberately used on the same land-management units as agricultural crops and or animals, in some form effective utilization of land and to increase the returns per unit of land. The three main components of agro forestry are land, crops & trees and animals and that can be combined in numerous spatial and temporal function thus creating different kinds of production function.
In economics, labour is defined as manual or mental work for acquiring income for their livelihoods. In farming domain, the agriculture labor is defined as labourers who earn their main source of income by working in farms of others for a wage. In this type, labours may classified in three namely skilled, semi skilled and unskilled labours based on their skill sets. Skilled labour is a type of labour, who is having specific skills like carpentry, black smiths, drivers, masonry etc will be utilized to perform a specific function, and correspondingly their wages will be on the higher side than other two types.
Food and Agriculture Organization defines organic agriculture is a unique production system which promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity, and this is accomplished by using on-farm agronomic, biological and mechanical methods in exclusion of all synthetic off-farm inputs. The beauty of organic agriculture production is dependency three elements namely soil, plants and animals. It is also called animal agriculture in which, animal depends on plants, plants depends on soil and soil depends on animals for their fertile life.
Integrated Farming System is a traditional concept in agriculture in which we are trying integrate various agriculture farming and its allied enterprises suitably for efficient use of single and multiple production function. In simple sense, it is a way integrating crop farming with livestock and poultry farming, fish farming, bee keeping and other agriculture technologies to enhance the value chain of farming system. The core idea ofintegration is harvesting the complementary and supplementary relationship functions of various enterprises effectively and the art of using the waste of one enterprise to be the input of other enterprise. It is a efficient farming tool for small and marginal farmers to optimize the output per unit of land and investment. Moreover, it is more of organic, eco and soil friendly in nature.
Register in general is recording of an event, transaction of stock and stores, money etc., and collectively it is aggregation of data. The farm will have lot of static and dynamic information and collection and recording all these information and storing the same is called register maintenance. Register maintenance is not a one time job, it is continuous process. Some of the registers will record the basic physical information and some other will record the financial transactions like expenditure, income etc. Maintenance of register with economics is more critical, because they decide profitability and economic efficiency of the farm. Registers are always associated with various activities carried out in a farm.
Cost of production of fodder is critical in deciding the profitability of fodder production and livestock production. In intensive animal farming, fodder plays a vital, because of the reason that, most of the feeding regimen of dairy cattle, buffalo and small ruminant production system is fodder based. Fodder make out the bulk o feed expenditure apart from compounded feed. Understanding the economics of fodder production is vital in production of fodder in livestock farms.
Demand for fodder in intensive livestock farming necessitates the fodder seed production in all the livestock and fodder farms for their own use and sale to needy. In the recent past, fodder seed production is also becoming commercial activity of farmers as the income is promising. Since, there are number of new varieties of fodder are coming to the market, demand for their seed is also encouraging to produce the same commercially. Considering this, the farm managers should aware of fodder seed production technologies for cost effective and quality fodder seed production.
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