Feeding Strategies during Natural Calamities

Livestock population is the first to be affected in the precarious situations due to

natural Calamities viz, flood, drought, cyclone, volcanic eruption, earthquake, Tsunami etc.
At that time. large scale transportation of feed and fodder becomes more difficult to the
affected areas. Transported food for human feeding is tried to be maintained. Because in that
period, main target of rescue, relief and rehabilitation is restricted for the people of affected
area. Little or meagre help is extended towards the livestock population. Most of the
government and nongovernment organizations generally remain busy for the welfare of
human beings. As a matter of fact, due to this negligence, a very difficult situation gradually
arises which makes it incapable of controlling the losses due to massive spread of epidemic
diseases, particularly during the post calamities period

Key words: Livestock management,and Natural Calamities

Introduction:

India is one of worst disaster prone countries of the world. Out of 29 states and union
territories in the country, 25 of them are disaster prone. Disasters continue to occur without
warning and are on an increase in their magnitude, complexity, frequency and economic
impact. The natural calamities in the form of floods, tsunamis, famines, cyclones,
earthquakes and avalanches are considered mainly due to global warming. The major effects
are acute shortages of food, feed and fodder and drinking water which adversely affect
human and livestock health and nutrition. Severe malnutrition due to natural calamities may
depress growth, productive and reproductive performance. Therefore, while developing the
feeding strategies during natural calamities, the first priority should be to save the animals
from starvation, diverting feedstuffs from lactating animals and then to sustain productivity
of the animals that survived to the extent possible.

The larger sufferer would be ruminants as most of them depend on crop residues, pastures
and grazing lands. Acute shortage of animal’s feeds and fodder is one of the major reasons
for low productivity of livestock (Bhagwat, 2008). Severe malnutrition due to natural
calamities may cause irreparable damage to the internal organs/tissue and may reduce growth
rates due to intake suppression and also depress productive and reproductive performance of
animals. Animal mortalities from malnutrition increase because fodder is insufficient or
inappropriate. Endemic diseases increase when herds mix at watering points because
weakened animals have low resistance.

The first priority should be to save the animals from starvation and the next priority should
be to sustain productivity of the survived animals. Therefore, animals should be fed to
maintain weight above the critical bodyweight or to preferentially feed productive stock such
as pregnant and lactating cows (Thole et al., 1993).
The feeding of animals during scarcity is discussed in many publications, e.g.: Champion
(1971), Ranjhan and Khera (1981), Saville (1981), Leng (1986), Leng and Preston (1987),
Sharma (1987), Kunju (1987), Rangnekar (1989), Cronjé (1990) and Fordyce et al. (1990) .
Most of these papers however merely list the feeds to be used without elaborating the
strategies to be followed. Moreover, much of this literature elaborates supplementation of
animals in situations where feed quality is low, but where sufficient dry fodder is available.

In Andhara Pradesh cyclone in 1996, East Godavori,West Godavari and Krishna districts
were badly affected. The total losses raised up to 20 thousands of cattle and 20 lakh of
poultry population valued 45 cores.

In 1996, how the flood affected livestock in different districts of West Bengal. It has been
estimated that 43% of the total livestock in India are perpetually affected by drought. Also,
flood in the northern region of the country take the lives of human and livestock and it is
reported that 10,000 livestock and 1400 human lives were lost every year from 1953-1986
(Sastry and Thomas 2005 ).

In 2010, the Kund Park in Pakistan suffered greatly in the flash floods, losing all its wildlife
of about a hundred endangered species including two leopards, 70 deer and 24 bears.

2004 - Tsunami

 Year: 2004
 killed 10,749, left 5,640 missing
 Total 2.79 million affected.

2005- Kosi Floods

 Year 2005
 Areas affected; Bihar.
 Total affected 3.33 million and 527 deaths.

Uttarakhand Flash Floods

• Year 2013
• Areas affected: Gobindghat, Kedar Dome, Rudraprayag district, Uttarakhand,
Himachal Pradesh, Western Nepal
• Death Toll: 5000 plus

The Indian Ocean Tsunami

• Year: 2004
• Areas affected: Parts of southern India and Andaman Nicobar Islands, Sri Lanka,
Indonesia etc.
• Death toll: 2 lakh plus

Gujarat Earthquake
• Year 2001
• Areas affected: Bhuj, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Kutch, Surat, Surendranagar
district, Rajkot district, Jamnagar and Jodia
• Death toll: 20,000 plus

The Great Famine

• Year: 1876-1878
• Areas affected: Madras, Mysore, Hyderabad, and Bombay
• Death toll: 3 crore Latur Earthquake

• Year: 1993
• Areas affected: Districts of Latur and Osmanabad
• Death toll: 20,000 plus

The Bengal Famine

• Year 1770, 1943

• Areas affected: Bengal, Odhisa, Bihar
• Death toll: 1 crore

The strategies such as

1) restricted feeding
2) conserved fodders in transportable silage bags;
3) fodder produced in low-cost hydroponic systems;
4) unconventional feed resources including propagation of thornless cactus;
5) urea molasses multinutrient blocks;
6) hay bales,
7) densified complete feed blocks or pellets containing untreated or urea-treated
straws/stovers,
8) tree leaves and grasses, mushroom harvested spent straw with and without feed
additives could help prevent livestock mortality and morbidity in emergency
situations.

Once the availability of quality feed and fodder improves, the animals should be given
compensatory feeding. The animals will recoup the loss in body weight completely and partly
the production performance suffered during natural calamities
On the other hand, drought causes a different type of loss where there is no or limited growth
of plants. In such condition, there is an acute shortage of feeds and fodder in flood affected
areas. Therefore, there is a need to formulate feeding strategy for maintenance of animals to
ensure its survival during and after flood. Feeding strategies during scarcity depend on the
specific conditions prevailing in any particular area. In general the farmer has to make
decisions based on economics, knowledge of nutrition, the availability of feed resources and
his calculated guess on the length of the drought.

The Feeding strategies can be developed with the following objectives :

a) To feed animals for maintenance that ensures survival of animals.

b) To feed productive stock, such as pregnant and lactating cows preferentially.

In such h conditions, livestock are to be fed with the locally available industrial waste,
different tree leaves or improving the coarse roughage. Which will be able to support the life
of the animals. It is useful to produce complete feed for use during calamities. Biologically the
use of complete feeds with an appropriate balances of roughage and concentrates may lead to
better utilization of locally available crop residues agricultural by-products and waste. The
transport of complete feed is easy and low in cost. Animals maintained on malnutrition
condition for prolonged period are supposed to suffer from different diseases and immunity of
animals goes down. So immediately, when the scarcity period is over, animals should be
adequately fed taking care of supplementation of different minerals and vitamins.

Feeding technologies to be used during and after calamities

1. Complete feed blocks

2. Urea molasses mineral block licks
3. Urea treatment of straws
4. Use of dry and fallen tree leaves
5. Use of conventional and unconventional feed

1. Complete feed block (CFB):

Complete feed block is composed of forage, concentrate and other supplementary nutrients in
desired proportions capable to fulfil nutrient requirement of an animal. The CFBs can be used
during calamities situations due to easy transport. Complete feed system is advantageous
against conventional system of feeding by reduced labour cost, maintenance of uniform
roughage concentrate ratio, uniform feed intake favouring uniform supply of nutrients and
maintenance of rumen environment. This system of feeding is well suited to our country as it
helps utilizing locally available crop residues, agro-industrial by products and non-
conventional feeds. Minimizing feed cost and labour cost and maximizing production is the
need of time and can be achieved by complete feed system. This system is economical and
efficient as it allows inclusions of low cost Agro industrial by-products211 and low quality
crop residues with their efficient utilization. Complete feed supplies readymade, balanced, low
cost ration for ruminants for the benefit of landless labourers and small farmers. The CFBs
were found to be very nutritious, easily digestible and handy to transport. The blocks were
made of proportionate mixture of wheat bran, rice, bran mustard, groundnut cakes, one percent
urea, molasses, minerals and salt. The blocks have dimension of 0.5 cubic feet containing
about 13% proteins and 50 to 55% total digestible nutrients. The nutritive value is 33% higher
than common feed. The machine costs about 3.5 lakhs.

Advantages of Complete Feed Blocks:

The blocks can be prepared in the surplus season and can be fed during scarcity and or
transported to the deficit region for feeding of animals to save heavy loss of livestock.
Different types of feed blocks i.e, for maintenance, growth and lactation can be formulated.
Major advantages of complete feed block are:

 Balanced and adequate intake of concentrate and roughage for better animal
production.
 Prepared feed blocks require one third space as compared to mash form.
 Reduced loss of valuable dry matter, as left over feed/ wastages.
 The palatability, voluntary intake and nutrient utilization of low-grade roughage are
increased.
 May be used as a carrier of several chemicals and prophylactic medicines.
 Unpalatable feed ingredients which are otherwise safe, but not consumed by the
animals can be incorporated in the CFB.
 Increased use of un-conventional feedstuffs, thereby feeding cost would be alleviated.

Thus complete feed block is an important strategy for efficient utilization of agro-industrial
by- products economic and sustainable livestock production.

2. Urea molasses mineral block:

The urea molasses mineral block (UMMB) is a strategic feed supplement for ruminant
animals. Molasses, urea and other ingredients are used in the manufacture of molasses/urea
feeds that are prepared as blocks. Crop residues are deficient in fermentable nitrogen, energy
and minerals. In absence of adequate quantity of green fodder in the diet, rumen microbes
don’t get nutrients supply for their own growth. As a result, digestibility of fibrous feed in the
rumen is affected. As ruminants can synthesize protein from non-protein nitrogen, UMMB
supplementation delivers urea and energy in small doses on continuous basis. These
preparations are an excellent way of providing readily degradable protein and readily
fermentable energy to ruminant animals, and they help increase the protein supply to the
animal. The blocks can be made from a variety of components depending on their local
availability, nutritive value, price, existing facilities for their use and their influence on the
quality of blocks.

The bulk of the diet for ruminants available commonly in scarcity as in drought in India
consists of fibrous feeds mainly crop residues (straws and stovers) and dried grasses (Kumar
and Paswan,2012). These feeds are deficient in protein and other essential nutrients. Owing to
excessive lignification, the digestibility and intake of crop residues is low. These blocks can
easily be stored, transported and distributed as against the common bulky diets available in
scarcity. The following ingredients were used in preparing UMMB: molasses 38 parts; urea 10
parts; portlald cement 10 parts; wheat bran 40 parts; salt, 1 part; mineral mixture 1 part;
vitablend 1g/100 kg. The above-mentioned ingredients were mixed in the following order:
water, urea, salt, mineral mixture, vitablend, cement, molasses and wheat bran. Water was
added at the rate of 1/3rd of the weight of cement to wet it completely. The mixture was then
transferred to specially designed moulds to form blocks. The blocks were allowed to settle for
a period of 24 h.

They can also include specific components.

 Molasses provides fermentable substrate and various minerals and trace elements (but
low amounts of phosphorous). Because of its pleasant taste and smell, it makes the
block very attractive and palatable to animals
 Urea, which provides fermentable nitrogen, is the most important component of the
block. Urea may increase the intake of straw and other low quality forages as well as
their digestibility. The intake of urea must be limited to avoid toxicity problems but
sufficient to maintain ammonia levels in the rumen consistently above 200 mg N/l for
growth of microorganisms in the rumen and high rates of degradation of fibre.
 Wheat or rice bran has a multiple purpose in the blocks. It provides some key nutrients
including fat, protein and phosphorus. It also acts as an absorbent for the moisture
contained in molasses and gives structure to the block.
 Minerals may be added where appropriate. Common salt is generally added because
this is often deficient in the diet and it is cheap. Calcium is supplied by molasses and
by the gelling agent, calcium oxide or cement.
 Various chemicals or drugs for the control of parasites or for manipulation of rumen
fermentation can be added to the molasses blocks which can be an excellent carrier for
these products.
UMMB developed by different private and government agencies are very helpful in
saving life of animals during scarcity. NDDB, Anand developed such licks containing
Urea 15%, molasses 45%, mineral mixture 15%, cotton seed cake 10%, salt 8% calcite
powder 4% and sodium bentonite 3%.

3. Urea molasses liquid diet (UMLD)

Molasses can be used as a potential drought/scarcity feed after supplementing deficient

nutrients viz. protein, minerals and vitamins. An experiment conducted at IVRI, lzatnagar on
lactating cows revealed that, about 8 kg of milk production can be sustained by the animals if
they are fed on liquid urea-molasses diets supplemented with 1kg of dry matter through green
oats per 100 kg of body weight, 0.8 kg of maize grain and 0.5 kg of fish meal per head per
day. The animals consumed about 6 kg of liquid diets (Ranjhan and Khera, 1976).
4. Urea treatment of straws

Potential sources of feeds for small livestock are by-products from both arable crops and agro-
industrial processes. These can be valuable sources of nutrients for livestock, rich in both
protein and energy. However, they are often low in nutritive value but rich in anti-nutritive
factors. Many of the crop by-products (such as straws and stovers) are also extremely fibrous
and more suitable for feeding to large ruminants (such as cattle and buffalo) rather than sheep
and goats.

When straws form a large component of the diet, the rumen micro-organisms grow very
slowly because of the low availability of either energy or protein. This in turn lowers the
digestibility of straw still further, as it is only in the rumen that the straw will be digested.
Straw digestibility is increased a little (although the amount of feeding value obtained from
straw is still extremely low) if the rumen micro-organisms are provided with some readily
available energy and protein, so that they are able to grow. The increased microbial population
is then able to digest the straw to a slightly greater extent. This is the rationale behind either
treating straw with urea (to provide nitrogen for the rumen microbes) or supplementing the
diet with protein, urea or (preferably) both urea and molasses.

Urea treatment of straws is the only chemical treatment with practical potential under field
conditions. Urea-treated straw saves on concentrate feeding, increases milk yield by 1-2
litres/animals/day, offers better economic returns to the farmers and may help reducing land
area required for green fodder production. For processing of one tone straw, 40 kg Urea
dissolved in 350-500 litres of water should be spread on the straws (Kumar and Paswan,
2012).

It should also be noted, when using this technology to improve the feeding value of straw for
goats, that goats are extremely susceptible to urea toxicity and will die from urea toxicity at
much lower dose rates than is the case with large ruminants such as cattle and buffalo. It is
therefore important that if straw is treated with urea, the urea solution is dispersed

5. Use of dry and fallen tree leaves:

Green fodder is not available during scarcity. But tree leaves are easily available. Leaves of
neem, mango, banyan, pipal, babul, subabul, mahuva, etc. can be used as green fodder. They
are good source of protein (6-20% CP), calcium (0.5-2.5%) and Vitamin A other non-toxic
tree leaves may also be fed to farm animals to supply part of their nutritional requirements.
The availability of digestible protein for most of the green tree leaves is limited to 1-2% and
energy equivalent to 10-15% of total digestible nutrients, on fresh basis.

Tree leaves had significantly higher CP, EE, Ca (Bakshi and Wadhwa, 2004; Chander Datt et
al., 2008b; Ganai et al., 2009) and tannins (Rana et al., 2006).

The leaves of Melia azedarach, Morus alba and Leucaena leucocephala supplemented with
mineral mixture and common salt could be fed as a complete feed to ruminants (Bakshi and
Wadhwa, 2007).
6. Use of conventional and unconventional feeds

The different kinds of conventional and unconventional feed stuffs for the preparation of
rations of different categories for feeding of Calamities affected animals been listed below:

A. Crop residue:

Rice is the staple food for the people, the farmers of all the state cultivate paddy as the main
cereal crop. After harvesting the grain from the crop, the left portion is known as straw.
These straws are collected from the field by the farmers and stored after drying in big stock
for feeding of animals. Paddy straw constitutes the basal roughage of cattle and buffaloes in
different north-eastern states of India. It is usually stored on wooden or bamboo platform
raised over the ground. This is required to minimize spoilage in the heavy rainfall areas.

B. Sugarcane crop residue:

Sugarcane is cultivated in some part of India. After harvesting the sugar cane the green tops
available as a waste can be used for the - feeding of cattle and buffaloes. Some quantity of
cane tops is converted into hay at some places, while good quantity of it goes waste, which
can be preserved by ensiling. Sugarcane trash mostly used as fuel for the preparation of
jaggery, may also be use to supply part of the roughage requirement after chaffing and
enriching with more palatable and nutritious feeds.

Bagasse is available in sugar factories and crushers after extraction of juice. A small
quantity is also available with farmer during the process of jaggery preparation. Parity large
proportion of bagasse is used as source of energy in the form of fuel for boilers. The
palatability and nutritional value of bagasse for the livestock (cattle and buffaloes) are much
better than the rice hull available from the huller rice mills and the latter may be used as fuel
saving the former for the feeding in need during scarcity period.

C. Aquatic plants:

Several types of aquatic plants are available in river, pond and other water logging areas may
be used for the feeding of farm animals. Although the palatability of most of the aquatic
plants is not good but the voluntary intake often exceeds 1 kg dry matter per 100 kg body
weight in cattle and buffaloes. Besides supplying protein and energy they are rich sources of
carotenes. So far the common aquatic plants tested for the feeding of farm animals are water
hyacinth, aquatic spinach, stalks and leaves of lotus plant (Neumbiull sp.), water chestnut
(Trapa natans), hydrilla, pistia, azolla, aquatic weeds. They are available readily at most of
the places during floods, which can be used in different forms for feeding of animals during
scarcity.

Post calamities feeding management:

  Animals should not be allowed to graze in water logged areas.
 Feeds to be protected form fungal contamination and wet feeds to be dried and fed.
 Provide clean drinking water to animals.
 40-50g of salt per adult animal and 10-20g for small ruminants and calves to be
provided daily through feed.
 Attempts need to be made to provide ready to eat feed blocks particularly to the
pregnant and lactating animals.
 Requirement of energy may be met by providing crude molasses. Top feeds / tree
leaves available in the area be provided to meet the dry matter requirement.

Water requirement

The water availability during drought is essential as water helps to regulate the body
temperature and required for transport of nutrients among other functions. The water
requirement is related to factors like heat load, production traits and dry matter (DM) intake.
The water requirement of lactating cows is in the range of 2.5–4.5 L/kg DM intake (Patil,
2006). During water scarcity, the watering frequencies in large ruminants should be reduced
to once in 2-3 days. This has the advantage of reducing overall feed and water consumption
with possible improvement in nutritional benefits in terms of increased feed digestibility and
feed conversion efficiency (Leng, 1986). The increased feed digestibility is primarily due to
increased retention time of digesta in rumen. Body reserves were unaffected by reducing
water supply to once in 3 days as compared to daily offered (Leng, 1986). The effects of
restricted water intake include reduced urine output and reduced feed intake. If the water
deprivation is severe, dehydration occurs, combined with protein catabolism and finally a
failure of the renal function.

Table 1. Short term dietary requirements of farm animals during calamities

Animal Water (L/d) Feed (kg/d)

Dairy cows
In production 26.5-34.0 9.1 hay
Cow with calf 30.3-34 5.4-8.2 legume hay
Calf (180 kg) 15.0-22.7 3.6-5.4 legume hay
Swine
Brood sow with litter 15 3.6 grain
Brood sow (pregnant) 11.4 0.9 grain
Sheep
Ewe with lamb 3.8 2.3 hay
Ewe (dry) 2.8 1.4 hay
Poultry
Layers/100 birds 19.0 7.7
Broilers/100 birds 18.9 4.5
Reduction of wastage by chaffing

If straw is insufficiently available for feeding of all animals, the reduction of wastage
might be an option. Shukla et al. (1988) reported that 15-20% of the straw offered was
refused when it was fed unchaffed. It also reduced the selection by the animals for the most
digestible parts like leaves (Ranjhan, 1993). In Haryana and Punjab, chaffing is common but it
is not widely practised in other areas probably because the farmers a r e u n a w a r e o f t h e
b e n e f i t s o f c h a f f i n g . U s e o f appropriate troughs for feeding and not offering straws
on the ground also help to reduce wastage.

Restricted feeding
During feed restriction, basal metabolism is reduced mainly because of decrease in
volume and metabolic activity of the viscera (Ortigues and Durand, 1995). Other tissues also
show a shift in the metabolism of nutrients and energy sources. Adipose tissue and liver release
enhanced amounts of free fatt y acids and ketone bodies, respectively which are used
by muscles and other extra hepatic tissues as energy substrates (Bossart et al., 1985).
When feed restriction is severe. Fruit and vegetable wastes can also be ensiled with or
without wheat or rice straw. Baby corn husk or baby corn fodder are harvested and wilted for
few hours in summer and 1-2 days in winter and then chopped and ensiled like conventional
fodders (Bakshi and Wadhwa, 2012a; Bakshi et al., 2016, 2017a). Fresh empty pea pods
available after shelling peas is an excellent source of nutrients for ruminants (Wadhwa
et al., 2006; Chander Datt et al., 2008a).
Feed restriction by offering only 75% of NRC (2001) feeding standard resulted in low DM
and N intake without affecting the digestibility of nutrients in buffaloes (Bhardwaj et al.,
2011a)

Use of spineless cactus

Cactus (Opuntia ficus-indica Mill.) is a thornless, succulent and drought-tolerant species with
a yield of more than 20 tonnes DM/ha/annum and provide 180 tonnes water/ha/annum stored
in its cladodes (Dubeux et al., 2015). In Maxico and African countries, livestock graze the
cactus. Opuntia cladodes contained (on DM basis) 10-25% ash, very high Ca followed by K
(Sawyer et al., 2001), 3-5% CP out of which 86.5% was soluble-N (Ben Salem et al., 2002a),
60% carbohydrates, 7.5% starch (Ayadi et al., 2009), 18-30% NDF, 12-20% ADF. Cladodes
also contained 0.6-1.4% mucilage which at least doubles in summer (Abidi et al., 2009a).
Cladodes are high in malic acid, a proven enteric methane mitigator, which may help in
reducing greenhouse gass emission.

Feed and fodder banks

Keeping in view of flood and drought situations, there is a need to establish feeds and fodder
banks at non-affected areas/regions near to the affected regions so that the feed and fodder
could be provided in a shortest possible time. Since during natural calamities, priority is to
sustain the animals on basic feeding schedule, the co-operative societies, ‘Krishi Vigyan
Kendras’, ‘Pashu Palan Kendras’ and NGOs should have the banks that contain densified
feed blocks or pellets, UMMB or green fodder bales so as to ensure the feed security. For
developing fodder banks, the requirement of space for storage is also a matter of serious
concern and as such most of the roughages used in animal feeding require a large space for
storage. The increase in bulk density on making complete feed blocks facilitates convenient
and economic handling, storage and transportation. Therefore, this technology could be
applied as viable component of ‘Famine Feed Bank’ in drought prone areas of arid and semi-
arid parts of the country. In the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia), high priority was given to
establishment of feed and fodder banks using densified feed blocks, bales and UMMB
(Makkar et al., 2018).

Fodder banks: Storage of fodder from good to bad years was a traditional drought coping
mechanism in arid region. One of the major issues that need greater attention is fodder bank
creation in arid region, creation of 6 fodder banks at Panchayat Samit levels may be enforced
for fodder security in famine years. The fodder bank concept should include 'bailing
densification, storage and transport of fodder to the need of deficient areas. The fodder bank
could be the ultimate solution and contingent plan to meet the demand of lean period shortage
particularly during drought and floods. These banks could be used for following feeds and
fodder. Feed bank for ingredients unfit for human consumption, grasses from periphery of
forest area, wastelands and farm lands stored as briquettes and high density stacks, crop
residues in densified form, coarse cereals , legumes, haulms left after grain removal can also
be stored.

Conclusion

The word ‘calamitise’ indicates scarcity of feed and fodder for human as well as livestock
use, resulting in failing crops, livestock, livelihoods and human health. Improved grassland
technologies envisaging protection of area, reseeding with high perennial grasses, soil and
water conservation, utilisation of pasture, management of excess forage and scientific
methods of grazing can enhance productivity of these lands manifold. The non-conventional
systems viz., silvipasture and honi-pasture, and forage production systems can be widely
adopted on wastelands constituting 1/3rd of arid region in western Rajasthan.

The management techniques to ensure feed and fodder security are improvement in the
production potential of fodder trees, bushes, range grasses and legumes for increased biomass
availability.

Conservation of grasses germ plasm, breeding for biotic and abiotic stresses and introduction
of short duration forage crops in the cropping system.

Appropriate strategies for efficient utilisation of the existing feed resources and conservation
of surplus fodder of normal years. To establish feed and fodder banks, storage and transport
of fodder from excess to scarcity areas. Proper veterinary aid is necessary to prevent the
spread of zoonotic diseases.