Utilization of Alternate Feed Resources
Use of alternate feed resources is one of the potential areas for augmenting feed resource base in the country. However, the use of NCFRs as livestock feed is restricted by the presence of anti-nutritional factors in most of such feeds. Majority of these alternate feed resources can be incorporated in the livestock rations, especially ruminants, either after suitable processing or at low levels where they do not have any adverse effects. Currently it is estimated that about 10-12 million tonnes of non- conventional oil cakes/extractions are potentially available for use as livestock feed.
Substantial quantities of by-products from the cereal milling industries having potential feeding values are available in India which serve as an alternative energy source to cereal grain feeding both in ruminants and non-ruminants. Being the by- products of flour industry, brans are popular feed ingredients for the farmers worldwide. They are rich in B-complex group of vitamins besides energy with moderate protein content. They also provide bulk in the concentrate mixture and keep the feed particles dispersed during digestion in the gastro-intestinal tract.
Cereal by-products such as brans originate from cereals like rice, wheat, and maize grains and husks from gram crops. Starting with 20.6Mt of rice production during 1950-51, the country has come a long way to produce about 141.1 Mt of rice by the year 2007. Rice husk comprises nearly 20 to 25 % of paddy and constitutes the largest by-product of rice milling industry. Assuming that all the paddy produced is milled in the modern rice mills, India will have about 23.6 Mt of rice husk annually.