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Feeding Systems with Legumes to Intensify Dairy Farms - cgiar

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Table 3. Amount of feed supplements used on dual-purpose cattle farms in<br />

Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua.<br />

Feed supplement<br />

Consumption (kg/cow per year)<br />

Costa Rica Honduras Nicaragua<br />

(n=21) (n=20) (n=37)<br />

Chicken manure 496.7 NA* 410.6<br />

Commercial feed concentrate 508.6 292.0 NA<br />

Rice polishing 137.3 NA NA<br />

Molasses 41.3 87.3 70.5<br />

Salt 38.1 7.8 24.1<br />

Minerals<br />

* NA = Not available.<br />

19.0 20.9 12.4<br />

Analysis of Potential Benefits of New Forage Germplasm<br />

This study aims <strong>to</strong> estimate the potential benefits of new forage<br />

germplasm, <strong>with</strong> different levels of adoption on-farm and at the regional<br />

level in the dry tropical hillside areas where the the Tropileche Consortium<br />

operates. The alternatives analyzed were Brachiaria brizantha, B.<br />

decumbens, and B. dictyoneura, as well as the legumes Cratylia argentea<br />

and Arachis pin<strong>to</strong>i, and sugarcane as energy source.<br />

Table 4 presents the nutritional parameters and biomass production of<br />

all forage alternatives evaluated in this study using the simulation model.<br />

Animal management parameters were taken from farm averages in each<br />

country so that they represented the current conditions of management and<br />

resource use (Tables 1 <strong>to</strong> 3).<br />

The situation prevailing during the study was evaluated for each region<br />

<strong>with</strong>in each country and this, in turn, was compared against three levels of<br />

adoption. Similarly, the following parameters were estimated <strong>to</strong> compare the<br />

different scenarios:<br />

• Additional investment in the new germplasm (per farm and per cow in<br />

the herd)<br />

• Net income (per hectare and per cow) after discounting fixed and<br />

variable costs amd use of family labor valued as minimum wage cost<br />

• Milk productivity/ha<br />

119

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