Feeding Systems with Legumes to Intensify Dairy Farms - cgiar

adoption level requires the lowest level of investment and new forage
alternatives will be established in small areas. With this level of adoption no
areas are released for other alternative uses because its sole objective is to
partially substitute purchased feed supplements.
Level 2. This level implied the adoption of new alternatives to not only
satisfy substitute feeds purchased to supplement the herd, but also to
release areas currently allocated to livestock production for other alternative
uses. As in Level 1, the same herd size and milk production/cow were
assumed; this level required a slightly higher investment than Level 1 and
could be considered the most rational option for producers already in Level
1.
Level 3. This level of adoption consisted in the establishment of new
forage germplasm in the entire farm area allocated to livestock production.
This level of adoption assumed the same milk production/cow but allowed
the expansion in herd size. Therefore this level required the highest level of
investment because it not only required that larger areas be established with
improved forages, but also that additional animals be purchased to
maximize land use. This level could be the option for producers already in
Level 2.
Results and Discussion
On-farm analysis of benefits. Tables 5, 6, and 7 present the results of
simulation runs of the linear programming model to analyze the situation at
that time versus potential benefits of three levels of adoption of new forage
germplasm in dual-purpose farms in Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
The situation of the dual-purpose farms surveyed was different in each of
the three countries. Nicaragua presented the lowest milk productivity/ha
because practically all the farms surveyed were covered by naturalized
Jaragua pastures (Table 7). The opposite situation was observed in
Honduras where milk productivity/ha was highest because the farmrs
surveyed had significant areas under improved pastures (>60%), as well as
important areas under cut-and-carry systems, for example sugarcane and
forage sorghum (Table 6). The situation observed in Costa Rica was
intermediate, with most of the pasture area covered by naturalized pastures
and a low level of adoption of improved forages (