Grazing Evaluation Based on a Scandinavian System

Abstract

Dairy farming in East Africa has reached a point of development when on many farms a more correct knowledge of the feeding value of the pastures is required. Without such knowledge, based on real records, proper use of land is very difficult. Most of our cattle are entirely dependent on grazing and it is not good enough to say," this land is able to keep one cow to one acre" or" one cow to ten acres". A cow is not a good standard of measurement, bui the use of starch equivalent values in this respect is better and much more accurate. In English handbooks we find figures and tables for the purpose of computing feed rations, but few figures are given which can be used for grazing evaluation. This means the opposite of computing a balanced ration. Here the ration is entirely obtained by grazing, however unbalanced it may be, and we want to know its energy value expressed in starch equivalent. In Scandinavia, however, we find standards for this purpose, worked out by the late Professor L. Fredriksen, which were adopted by the Nordic Agricultural Scientists' Association at their congress in Copenhagen in 1935, and which are used in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland. The methods used in these countries are well worth studying, as they have raised the output of dairy products by more than 25 per cent during the last 50 years and at the same time have lowered the feed consumption. The statistical material available to the Scandinavian scientists is immense. Over one million cows were under continuous observation during the years between the two world wars. Complete records have been kept of the food consumed and the quantity and fat percentage of milk produced. This work is performed by the cow-testing associations, which were first started in 1895.