Improvement of Livestock Production in Crop-Animal Systems in ...

of non-renewable fossil fuels and tractors has, amongst other things, reduced carbon dioxide and carbonmonoxide emissions into the atmosphere.In Thailand, manure has sustained yields of rice at 1.5–2.0 t/ha for centuries, with the minimal use ofartificial fertilisers (de Guzman and Petheram 1993). In Java, Indonesia, farmers collect feed refusals in pitsbeneath their animal barns. The refusals combine with faeces and urine falling through slatted floors toproduce compost. This is ranked by farmers as one of the most important outputs from animal production.In the uplands of Java, 90% of the fertiliser used in smallholdings is compost and is essential to thesustainability of some of the most intensive cropping cycles in the world (Tanner et al 1995).Probably most buffaloes, a large proportion of beef and draft cattle, and small numbers of goats andsheep in the region are dependant on cereal straws for maintenance at some time during the year. Rice strawis often fed during the crop-growing season, when animals have little or no access to grazing, and during thedry season when other feeds are in short supply or exhausted. In the dry season, levels of crude protein andphosphorus in residues of fertilised crops are often two or three times higher than those available from nativepasture. In the Philippines and Malaysia, beef feedlots are often based on the use of pineapple pulp as themain roughage source. In the northern Mindanao region of the Philippines, some 9000 animals, mainlyBrahman crossbreds imported from Australia, are fattened for five to seven months at any given time undercommercial conditions. Some 17 kg of fresh pineapple pulp (22% dry-matter; 1–2% crude protein), 4 kg ofconcentrates (copra cake, rice bran, cassava meal and soyabean meal; 16% crude protein) and minerals arefed to each animal. At the start of the feeding operation, animals weigh on average 280 kg. They gain weightat a rate of about 1.0 kg/day and are slaughtered at around 400 kg liveweight after transport to Manila. Theanimals produce 4–6 kg fresh manure/head each day, which is returned to the soil under the pineapple crop.Table 9 shows some of the economic benefits to farmers from introducing animals into croppingsystems. In every case significant profits were made from the integration of animals. Chee and Faiz (1991)reported that sheep grazing herbage under rubber in Malaysia saved 16–38% of the total weeding costs.Similar results were reported by Chen and Chee (1993) for oil palm, with savings of 20–40% when cattlewere used to graze the herbage. In oil palm, yields of fresh fruit bunches were increased by 3.5 t/ha per yearas a result of cattle grazing native herbage (Devendra 1991) and 30% yield increases were reported by Chenand Chee (1993). Using buffaloes in Malaysia for transporting oil palm fruit bunches from the field to thecollecting centre increased the income of the harvesters by as much as 30% (Liang and Rahman 1985). In afurther example from the Philippines (Deocareza and Diesta 1993), the introduction of improved grasses orgrass–legume pastures and cattle into coconut plantations resulted in total incomes ranging from US$ 608–809 compared to US$ 510 from coconut alone.Devendra (1993 and 1996a) has reviewed the results of the following long-term case studies.Systems combining animals and annual cropping• Three-strata forage system (Indonesia).• Rice–beef cattle system (the Philippines).• Rice–beef cattle system (China).• Pig–fish integration (China).Systems integrating animals and perennial crops• Integrated oil palm–ruminant system (Malaysia).• Rubber–animal system (Indonesia).• Integrated coconut–ruminant system (the Philippines).• Sloping agricultural land technology (the Philippines).