Feed-Milk Conversion Efficiency of Dairy Animals and Methane Emissions across Different Landholding Groups

The study delineates the influence of landholding size of the farmers on the feed-milk conversion efficiency of dairy animals. The average milk production of a dairy animal in Andhra Pradesh is 4.40 kg per day and it varies with the breed of the animal. Crossbred cows (6.58 lit) and graded Murrah buffaloes (5.37 lit) produce milk which is more than 50 percent of what their counterparts i.e., local cows and local buffaloes produce. A positive correlation between milk yields and landholding size of the farmers is observed for all the breeds of dairy animals. Further, a positive influence of landholding size is observed in the case of quantity and quality of feeds given to dairy animals. Among all the breeds of dairy animals crossbred cows exhibited higher feed-milk conversion efficiency followed by Murrah buffaloes. The DCP/TDN ratio of the feeds given to dairy animals is 0.083 which is lower than the recommended level of DCP/TDN ratio of 0.10 to 0.12 and it clearly underlines that DCP/TDN ratios of feeds given to the animals of all the breeds are less than the optimum indicating the protein deficiency. The average TDN quantity utilized by the existing dairy animals is 1.55 kg for one kg of milk production as against 1.0 kg of optimum level indicating about 55 percent of excess feeding leading to excessive methane production. If the protein content of the ration is increased optimally the excess amount of TDN could efficiently be converted into milk without leaving the excess TDN for methane production.