Feeding Systems with Legumes to Intensify Dairy Farms - cgiar

Table 4. Farm improvement plans in the Alto Mayo region of Peru and
percentage of farmers interviewed who want changes.
Improvement plans
Increase the area under
pasture
Improve sheds/corrals
Improve the herd
Improve the pasture
Other
Conclusions
Nuevo
Cajamarca
50
55
55
66
50
112
Site
Soritor Habana Rioja
The main conclusions of the activities carried out by this collaborative
effort between national institutions and CIAT in the Alto Mayo region of Peru
were as follows:
• Local farmers managed a mixture of enterprises, changing proportions
over as time determined by market variables.
• Farmers adjusted the amounts of milk sold versus the milk consumed
by calves in response to prices paid for milk.
• Farmers had technically sound but expensive solutions to their
problems of weeds and cattle diseases.
• A high number of farmers were in process of adopting cut-and-carry
forages, improving feeding and milking sheds, and installing forage
cutters. The demand for improved forages was therefore relatively high.
• Although the need for dietary protein was acknowledged, the adoption
of forage legumes has been hindered by high losses in biomass due to
attacks of insects and wild herbivores.
• Very little pasture degradation due to pasture trampling by animals was
observed at the time of the survey, although producers mentioned that
this was a production constraint in flatter areas.
40
27
59
59
22
45
18
45
36
36
64
36
64
55
45