Tracie Dang
Elsie Fullerton
Jin Kyung-Kim
Greta Soos
3/15/15
Silage Production to Alleviate Malnutrition in Cows in Nicaragua
Tracie Dang
Elspeth Fullerton
Jin Kyung-Kim
Greta Soos
3/15/15
D-Lab Winter 2015
Table of Contents
Meet the Team…………………………………………………………………………page 3
Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………...page 4
Final Problem Definition……………………………………………………………...page 4-5
Background…………………………………………………………………………....page 5-7
Methodology…………………………………………………………………………...page 8-12
Results………………………………………………………………………………….page 12-17
Recommandations……………………………………………………………………..page 18-20
Project Reflection……………………………………………………………………...page 20-21
References……………………………………………………………………………...page 21-22
Appendices……………………………………………………………………………..page 22-23
Meet the Team!
1. Executive Summary
Each year those residing in the community of Sabana Grande, Nicaragua, face a problem during the dry season. From January to June, when the pasture dries up, community members are left with no cheap, accessible means of nourishing their cattle (Climate 1). When the cattle begin to starve they lose the ability to reproduce and stop producing milk—rendering them useless and burdensome to their owners. Though most community members regard dairy furnishings as supplemental to their core diet, many could do with the extra nourishment and alleviation of the stress that is associated with food insecurity (Lopez, 2015). Further, year-round access to dairy products could yield not only better nourished citizens but could also provide economic opportunities for those looking to fill what may be a newly available market niche. UC Davis veterinary students who traveled to Sabana Grande in the summer of 2014 identified silage as a good solution to the problem of malnourished cows (Sorenson, 2014). Silage harnesses the energy from crop residues that are cheap and might otherwise be discounted as a means of furthering nutrition. The silage process essentially uses cattle as machines via which the inaccessible energy found in Sabana Grande’s sorghum-like crop residues is converted into nutrients found within dairy products, making those calories available to people.
In conjunction with our client, Hilario Lopez, the D-lab Silage Team has identified three means of addressing the malnutrition cattle problem. The first goal is to develop a silage chopper that can reduce the workload associated with reducing crop parts into fine pieces (chopping by hand with a machete is prohibitively time consuming—especially as many community members regard time as their most precious commodity). Referring to Appendix 2 shows an image of Hilario chopping crop residue by hand with a machete in order to make silage. Community education services will also be developed regarding silage and cattle nutrition upon development and implementation of the silage chopper. The D-lab Silage Team is further exploring the possibility of implementing holistic management and planned grazing strategies into the community as part of a long-term and inter-disciplinary solution to the skinny cow problem. The group has secured grant funding and will be traveling to Sabana Grande during the summer of 2015.
2. Final Problem Definition
Sabana Grande is a small farming community in Nicaragua where cow nutrition is insufficient primarily due to food shortages caused by lack of pasture and grass growth during the dry season. In order to alleviate malnutrition among their cattle community member Hilario Lopez is looking to silage production, a practice which makes use of dry grasses and forage, to nourish Sabana Grande’s cows during these yearly periods of famine. Unfortunately, there is currently no efficient way for community members to chop forage, a key component of the silage production process. Farmers chop forage by hand, a practice which is labor intensive and time inefficient to the degree that community members allow their cattle to starve instead. Our D-lab Silage Team has the goal of either identifying or producing an effective chopper for the community to use in making silage. The preferred chopper design is one that is cost efficient, economically viable, safe to use, easy to use, and environmentally friendly. The Silage Team has spent 10 weeks identifying options that best fit these criteria and exploring solutions to other limitations in the production of silage in Sabana Grande, Nicaragua.
3. Background
3.1 Community Background: Sabana Grande
Sabana Grande is a community in the Madrid Province of Nicaragua with a reported population of 2,000 humans and 60 cows (Lopez 2015). This rural region lies among the mountains of Totogalpa, only 20 miles from the border of Honduras. Since 1999 this small agricultural community has harbored an NGO, GrupoFenix, which works with land-mine survivors affected during the country’s civil war between the Sandinistas and the Contras (Guevara-Stone 2015). Most families do not have an income, although there is a thriving solar business. Totogalpa is Nicaragua’s second poorest region. The typical citizen of Sabana Grande features a fourth-grade education (Guevara-Stone).
An assessment of available community resources is featured in our “Results”table.
3.2 State of Cows in Sabana Grande
Livestock keeping practices by rural, small scale farmers are far less productive than those of industrialized farmers, but livestock in lower income communities have the capacity to alleviate poverty and provide better health and nutrition to the communities it serves (Randolph, 2007). Members of the community of Sabana Grande received cows through the Bono ProductivoAlmentario (BPA) which focuses on strengthening food security and improving family nutrition through the distribution of livestock (Reyes, 2014).
Dairy supplements a family’s diet providing needed proteins and fats to limited diets, and excess milk can be sold to supplement family income. However, the animal’s health may suffer without adequate access to feed, caused by cost of feed and other resource constraints. The dairy cows in the Sabana Grande (SG) community of Nicaragua are an example of malnourished animals. There are about 20 cow owners in the community, each with 2-3 pasture-raised cows. During the dry season, which is November to April, the cows have limited access to pasture lands and food. These cows are mainly kept for dairy production to supplement the families’ diet, but unhealthy cows have many downstream effects on the animal and family. Not only does the cow not produce milk, but also the cow may be more susceptible to illness, which will add additional financial burdens to the family. While cow owners do not fully rely on the milk production, the added nutritive benefit of the milk improves the health of the family and therefore the overall community. Today, cattle owners in SG have become accustomed to reduced or halted milk production during the winter months.
In 2012, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine developed a One Health project in Sabana Grande, which investigated the overall health of the community by conducting a survey to understand the needs of the humans, animals, and environment. The students identified the importance of improving animal and human health and began conducting educational workshops to promote the connection between livestock health the overall community welfare (Sorenson, 2014). During their time in Nicaragua they learned that cattle do not receive proper nutrition during the dry season. Besides their physically skinny appearance, cattle are not reproductively healthy and have lower milk production during the dry season. The students’ survey responses ranged from 50%-100% reduction in milk production from wet to dry season. Typical cows produce milk for about 10 months after they have calved, however this is not always the case in SG. In SG the cows are bred once they are a few years old and then impregnated by a rented or borrowed bull every one to two years to maintain milk production (Lopez, 2015). Cows in SG produce about 3.9-3.8 liters of milk per cow per day (Sorenson 2014) compared to 30 liters of milk per cow per day produced by an average industrially raised American cow (Dairy Moos). Cows that are not properly fed will produce less milk, and studies have shown that pasture raised cows in the United States produce 11.1% less milk than cows that are confined (White 2002). Though the milk production may be lower, the quality of the milk is higher as cows are naturally pasture grazing animals. Most cows in the US are fed a carefully engineered diet of grain, roughage, silage and vitamins for maximum milk yield. For high milk yield, cows must eat large amounts of feed, around 2-4% of their body weight (Wheeler, 2003). Most dairy cows are fed grain with forage and given protein supplements, but the cows in the SG community are pasture-raised and underfed for many months of the year. They also do not receive many dietary supplements to amend their pasture diets. The veterinary students from UC Davis identified silage as a possible resource that can improve the cattle health during the dry season.
3.3 Holistic Resource Management
Holistic resource management is a practice, championed by Allan Savory, which involves bunching and moving cattle among different areas of pastureland, taking into account social, environmental, and economic phenomena (TED Talk). It has four cornerstones:
1. Succession of plants, animals, and soils together as one entity
2. Water cycle in the ecosystem
3. Mineral cycle in the ecosystem
4. Energy flow through the ecosystem
The key to management, according to Savory, is manipulation (via control and understanding) of the soil surface (Savory 156).
Savory describes holistic resource management as a “goal oriented” practice that is ideally suited to brittle environments. A brittle environment is one that experiences prolonged periods of the year during which environmental or climate conditions deter plant growth. Sabana Grande, with its six-month dry season, precisely fits this definition (Savory 155-6).
In Sabana Grande holistic resource management would, ideally, serve to reduce the community’s dependence on silage and other food matter outside of pasture-feeding the cattle. Holistic management is a multi-faceted idea—one that is simultaneously simple in theory and complex in its application. It is simple in that it aims to use livestock in order to “mimic nature” (TED Talk). But natural processes, especially within the context of complex network interactions, are a difficult entity to mimic.
There are dangers associated with committing to a holistic management plan with “enthusiasm that is unmatched by knowledge” (Savory 155). For instance, Savory warns against settling for “short duration grazing.” Such a practice may seem like a simplified version of holistic land management, but can lead, instead, to disastrous results. “No matter how short the grazing periods, overgrazing will result unless the grazing periods are what [Savory] calls “time-controlled” which means that grazing periods relate to the daily growth rate of the plants in the growing season” (158). Further considerations include the time that the animals are slotted to return back to the land and the availability of pastoral grasses to meet the requirements of the cattle.
As discussed in our “Community Background” section cattle owners in Sabana Grande may range from owning a solitary cow to individually owning up to 10 head. Community members, besides varying in the number of cows they own, also have access to differing amounts of pastoral land from which to nourish these cattle. A cornerstone of holistic management is bunching livestock together and then moving them among the available pastoral land in a planned manner. For holistic management to work well in Sabana Grande it would require the community to be extremely cooperative with one another. Given that each community member is bringing a proportionally different number of cattle (which would directly correlate to the output in terms of amount of pasture food resources consumed) and that different community members are providing different inputs (in terms of the amount of land contributed to the cause) there is a certain amount of social understanding and caution that needs to be exercised in such a situation.
Furthermore, as conceded by Savory, for holistic management to be done properly one needs to be both invested in its study and willing to commit to the process. Such an undertaking would likely require somebody to rigorously oversee the planning and operation of such an endeavor. Hilario, as the farm leader in Sabana Grande and somebody who is already invested in this project, may make a good candidate.
3.4 Four Lenses Analysis (Overview of Project)
Economic / Technology•Affordability of chopper
•Cost of unit and/or materials
•Cost of fuel (for diesel powered chopper) / •Energy inputs from each chopper design
•Chopping mechanism (ease of use or not)
•Chopped quality (chop silage in ideal lengths or not)
•Reliability (if the chopper last over time with few repairs)
Culture / Environment
•Community buy-in of our project goals
•Usability of chopper from community
•Educational outreach about silage benefits and silage production / •Sustainability
•Environmental impact
•Holistic land management
4. Methodology
4.1 Stakeholders and Mentors
The D-lab Silage Team relied on an extensive network of mentors and collaborators to provide the group with knowledge, ideas, and support. To understand the community needs of those living in Sabana Grande the team relied heavily upon these individuals to provide us with information regarding the different facets of our project. The primary means of garnering information regarding Sabana Grande was via client Hilario Lopez, a farm leader in the community who is significantly invested in this project and agreed to weekly interviews via Skype.
We have identified the stakeholders in this project to be the following:
StakeholdersSmall farm cattle owners in Sabana Grande / The small farm cattle owners would be highly involved since the dry season affects their cattles’ health and nutrition, which therefore affects their milk production which the owners depend on.
Small farmers’ cattle / The dry season directly affects the cattles’ health especially if there is not enough pasture for the cattle to graze on.
Hilario Lopez, Vet Promoter and Farm Leader / Our main client who is an active community leader to help us implement a chopper and educational workshops.
Food and Dairy Markets / Inefficient milk production from cattle due to malnutrition during the dry seasons can lead to unsuccessful market sales of milk and cheese.
4.2 Cost Assumptions
4.2.1 Feed
Client Hilario stated that one cow can eat about 45 kg of fresh grass each day. Taiwan grass is typically 20% dry matter which amounts to 9kg dry matter intake per day. The main crop they ensile is sorghum at a 65% moisture content (DM). There are biomass losses during the ensiling process as the microbial activity will degrade some of the residue as it ferments. This loss ranges from 6%-20% depending on silage conditions. The team is assuming about 10% losses which converts to 15.4 kg of residue results in 1 day of cattle feed. For the driest time of the year, from February to April we can assume that 1,386 kg of residue must be chopped to feed one cow.
4.2.2 Feed Calculations (per Cow for 3 months)
Grass:
mass of grass x moisture content of grass = dry matter
ex.
DMI fresh grass:
45 kg x 0.20 kg dry matter/ total = 9 kg dmi /day
Ensiled sorghum:
mass of dry matter (kg) / (percent moisture content of sorghum x percent dry matter after ensilage)
ex.
Sorghum needed for 1 day of feed:
9kg / (0.65 moisture content x 0.90 dry matter after fermentation) =15.4 kg sorghum feed/day
Total feed needed for 3 months:
15.4kg x 90 days= 1386 kgs
Purchased animal feed:
assuming animal feed is similar in moisture content to grass
daily grass consumption (kg/day)x cost of feed ($/kg)= $ /day
ex. 45 kg/day x $0.80/kg= $36/day
Total hours to feed 1 cow during 3 months of dry season:
total feed needed for 3 months (kg) / throughput (kg/hr) = number of hours
Total recurring cost of feeding 1 cow during 3 months of dry season:
(cost of feedstock ($/kg) x total feed needed for 3 months) + (cost of diesel ($/liter) x diesel used (liters)= recurring cost of feed ($)
Total cost of feeding animals in first year of dry season:
total recurring cost + investment cost = total cost of feeding animal in first year
4.2.3 Machines Cost Analysis
There are several common ideas as to what machinery would work best as a forage chopper. The most important component of any chopper is the mechanism used to chop the silage, the blade. This blade can be moved and powered both manually or by diesel or electric power. The qualifications for a best fit chopper for the community would ultimately be solar powered, safe to use, fast, and efficient. These parameters may be unlikely to meet, so research was conducted on all machine possibilities. Possible choppers include a hand powered chopper, a pedal powered flywheel design, a solar powered chopper, a repurposed lawnmower, and a diesel chopper. There are several ways to combine power supply to some of these choppers. For instance, a pedal powered flywheel design could also be converted into a diesel powered flywheel design, or a repurposed lawnmower could be powered by diesel or electricity.
Machine / Assumptionsdiesel chopper / •$600-1200
solar powered chopper / •Client Hilario Lopez stated that solar units are approximately $600
•An electric chopper on alibaba.com costs about $200
pedal powered / •bike frame is available and will cost ~$60
•cutter blade and shaft are available and cost ~$80
•additional materials cost ~$60
•total cost ~$200
repurposed lawnmower / •lawnmower is not available in Sabana Grande, but it can be transported there
•Uses diesel at rate similar to chopper
•cuts residue at have the rate of diesel chopper at 200kg/hr
•cost ~$100
hand powered chopper / •8 metal flat blades (machetes) will cost ~$24
•Wooden boards available and cost ~$8
•Additional materials cost ~$33
•Total cost ~$65
4.3 Community Analysis
We further understood the community’s food and material resources, lifestyle, cattle and silage knowledge by researching Sabana Grande’s geographical, economical and social aspects through scientific articles and by facilitating weekly interviews with Hilario. We specifically analyzed the primary stakeholder who is being affected in the community and critically asked questions towards ideal solutions that we may realistically implement for the community.