Potential of halophytes as cattle fodder : A case-study in Pakistan

Abstract

Good quality water and arable land are needed to grow conventional crops to provide food for human and animal population. However, burgeoning world population leading to wide spread urbanization and industrialization is aggressively sharing these resources. A solution may be found in using saline water and salinized lands to produce quality animal feed from salt tolerant plants. In this study, two halophytic grasses (Panicum antid tale and Desmostachya bipinnata) were tested for their potential to replace conventional cattle fodder in the diet of cattle. Four trials were conducted in which cow calves were fed diets containing above mentioned halophytes alone or in combination with conventional fodders (wheat and maize). Weight gain in animals fed diets supplemented with halophytes were generally at par with or in few cases marginally better than those on conventional fodder. For instance, P. antid tale increased the calf weight around 15% when used as green and 8% in case of hay. Feeding Berseem (Trifolium alexandrinum, 15% crude protein) as the only source of concentrate in a diet containing D. bipinnata sustained weight only for about 6-7 weeks after which it started to decrease. Supplementing the diet with a regular concentrate was subsequently needed to restore weight gain. Halophytes as green/hay/concentrate were as good as conventional fodder regarding dressed meat. The protein content of meat was showing increasing trend when replacing conventional fodders with halophytes, particularly 20% protein was higher in meat when Prosopis juliflora pods and Manilkara zapota were used as concentrate and P. antidotale as hay in diet.