Bridging the Dry Season Dairy Feeding Gap using Quality Rice Residue based Total Mixed Rations in Northern Uganda

Urban small holder dairy production is challenged by non-sustainable supply of good quality forage especially in the dry seasons. This study aimed at establishing the economic potential benefit of rice straw based Total Mixed Rations (TMRs) based small holder dairy production. Four dietary treatments prepared using Maize bran (MB), rice straw (RS), molasses (MO), soymeal (SY), sunflower cake (SF) and mineral premix (MIN), TMR1 (MB 5, SY 5, SF10, RB 10, RS 65, MO 10, and MIN 1 %), TMR2 (MB 5, SY 10, SF4, RB 10, RS 50 MO 10, and MIN 1 %), TMR3 (MB 4, SY 15, SF5, RB 25, RS 40, MO 10, and MIN 1 %) and TMR4 (MB 10, SY 15, SF10, RB 24, RS 30, MO 10, and MIN 1 %) were compared with a control treatment (Panicum hay diet). Each dietary treatment was fed to each of the five Friesian Ankole crosses in a 5x5 Latin square design. Data were collected on dry matter intake (DMI) and milk yield, crude protein intake, total digestible nutrient intake and milk yield per unit crude protein intake determined. The TMR parameters determined included dry matter, crude protein, organic matter digestibility and total digestible nutrient (TDN). Highest DMI, milk yield, CPI, TDN of was obtained in TMR1 (15.191 kg cow-1 d-1, 562.1 g cow-1 d-115.54 g cow-1 d-1, 1538 g cow-1 d-1) and least in the control diet (7.98 kg cow-1 d-1, 7.89 L cow-1 d-1, 383.5, 1412.3 g cow-1 d-1) respectively. Compared with the control, milk yield increased by 96.95, 88.34, 67.8 and 37.90 % for TMR1, TMR2, TMR3, TMR4, respectively, while the net milk benefits increased by 215.62, 242. , 225.99 and 212.93 % for TMR1, TMR2, TMR3, TMR4, respectively for the period of 70 days. TMR3 gave the highest net benefits, implying the nutrient profile of the diet met the minimum requirements to exploit the production potential of the Friesian crosses used in the study. Any additional increase in feeding costs through feed quality beyond that of TMR3 gives no economically valid improvement in milk production. This implied that the production potential of the dairy breeds used is maximized by feeding with TMR3. TMR-based small holder dairy production is observed to be an economically viable intervention.