1. Make Poverty History
2.
Alfalfa/Lucerne - History
3. Alfalfa/Lucerne - Where can it be grown?
4.
Alfalfa/Lucerne - Quality
5. Alfalfa/Lucerne - Water Consumption
6.
Alfalfa/Lucerne - Productive Value
7. Contributions
1. Make Poverty
History
There is a G8 summit meeting to be held in Edinburgh,
Scotland on 6th - 9th July. Bob Geldof is heading a Live 8 campaign 20
years after his Live Aid concerts to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. The Live 8 campaign,
operating under the "Make Poverty
History" logo in England and Canada, is
designed to bring awareness to the plight of many countries in Africa. The
aim is to encourage the members of the G8 to improve aid, relieve debt and
create an environment for fairer trade. Under the latter they want to see
removal of agricultural subsidies and unfair trade barriers.
This
initiative is to be welcomed, but I would suggest that there too much focus on
the fact that economic success is dependent on exports and trade with the first
world countries. Many areas do produce products, such as rubber, coffee,
cocoa and many minerals that the first world countries are unable to grow or
produce, but they also need a strong agricultural base to feed their own
people. Agriculture has made tremendous progress over the past 50 years to
enable low cost food to be available for all and produced in many regions of the
world, with the right production systems. A strong agricultural base
creates employment through not only direct employment on land, but also all the
required support services. This starts an upward spiral effect of
demand for improved infrastructure and manufactured products as the net
spendable income of the populations increase. This demand creates
increased employment opportunities and so economic growth becomes self
perpetuating.
Why is this important to Ostrich
production?
Ostrich has the greatest potential for
producing large volumes of red meat efficiently. Produced correctly
they are the most efficient converter of feed to red meat, thus requiring fewer
resources to produce that meat. Ostrich production can be part of a strong
plan to "Make Poverty History" in many regions of the
world.
2. Alfalfa/Lucerne - History
Ostrich can be
reared without Alfalfa included in their diet, but at a tremendous cost to the
producers in lost production and putting at risk the long term commercial
success of our industry. For the avoidance of any doubt - Alfalfa and
Lucerne are the same plant.
Over the years many have told me that
they cannot get Alfalfa in their countries, it cannot be grown, the quality is
very poor or it is very expensive. During the last month there have
been several incidents of this and I had one producer quoted US$676 per
tonne. Ostrich require between 30% to more than 50% alfalfa (on a dry matter basis) in their rations -
dependent on the production goals of the rations and quality of all
ingredients. A cost of US$676 was clearly uneconomic. This led me to
search for more information to help producers as this is such a key factor to
ensure the commercial success of our industry.
This subject is so critical to ensuring the success
of our industry, I am going to focus on Alfalfa production for this
newsletter.
Alfalfa is recognised as one the earliest crops to be
domesticated by man, with remains of alfalfa more than 6000 years old found in
Iran. The oldest written reference for Alfalfa is from Turkey in
1300BC. During Roman times Alfalfa was linked to military might
because of the important role in maintaining the fitness of the war
horses. The Spanish and Portuguese first took Alfalfa to the new world
during the conquest of Mexico, Peru and Chile. The eastern US
colonists, including Thomas Jefferson and George Washington grew alfalfa, but it
only became widely adopted in the US in the 1850's. "Chilean Clover"
(alfalfa brought from Chile) was introduced during the gold rush of
1849-1850. From there it spread eastwards to the plains of the United
States.
Today the United States grows 23 million acres per
annum making Alfalfa the 3rd crop in value behind Maize and Soybeans. That
is the productive value of this amazing forage crop. Alfalfa production in
California is the 3rd most valuable crop behind Grapes and Cotton, but when
combined with Dairy and Beef, as these industries are interdependent, they
are the most valuable agriculture sector in California.
Since the 1920's average yield has increased by 1/2
ton/acre per decade. Today, average production is just over 7 tons Dry Matter/acre (+17 tons/hectare).
Evidence is that yields per acre are still increasing, where increase in yields
of other cash crops are tending to level out. This progress is attributed
to a number of factors, including improved varieties, better land preparation,
better water distribution systems, improved fertility, superior harvesting
methods and overall improved management.
Alfalfa is seen as
essential for high producing dairy cattle, who have increased yields by more
than 60% since the 1970's. Alfalfa is also used extensively for sheep,
beef and other livestock production. It is stated that without alfalfa many
farms and ranches would fail. The same holds true in ostrich production.
The lack of quality alfalfa continues to be a contributing factor to the failure
of many ostrich farms. Quality Alfalfa, combined with the correct
management systems, is essential to realise the full production potential of Ostrich
3. Alfalfa/Lucerne -
Where can it be Grown?
Quote: "Alfalfa is one of the world's most versatile crops. It is
grown in environments ranging from burning hot deserts to cool high mountain
valleys, from the frozen continental climate of Minnesota to the Mediterranean
valleys of California. Alfalfa can grow on soils ranging from beach sands
to heavy clays. It is grown as an intensive cash crop under irrigation or
as a lower-intensity rainfed pasture crop in forage
mixes." end quote
The above
information and quote is taken from a document: "Alfalfa, Wildlife and the
Environment - The Importance and Benefits of Alfalfa in the 21st Century".
The document is published by The University of California, Davis. The full
document can be viewed and downloaded at: http://alfalfa.ucdavis.edu/subpages/Wildlife/BrochureFINAL.pdf This website has a lot of very useful
information regarding Alfalfa production and testing.
Another
website that has some useful publications is http://www.alfalfa.org. This is
an alliance of seed producers recently established and developing educational
literature to assist producers both within the US and
overseas.
Studying all the information that is now available on
Alfalfa production it is clear that there have been tremendous advances on
varieties to ensure that they are suitable for different climatic and soil
conditions. Varieties are also now more resistant to certain diseases or
pests. Production methods and management systems continue to improve to be
able to further increase yields and quality. Regions that have
sufficient rainfall to make field drying difficult do require drying
plants. Some regions use drying plants as they supply markets some
distance away and dehydrated pellets is the most cost effective and easiest
method of storage and transport.
4. Alfalfa/Lucerne -
Quality
During my research one thing struck me very hard and
that was the high levels of protein and other nutrients being discussed.
My personal experience in South Africa and Europe was the difficulty to obtain
reliable quality. We even had one European expert tell us that if any company was
selling Alfalfa of 20% or above they are either not telling the truth or are
adding something to the Lucerne to enhance the protein level.
The
percentages are expressed in Dry Matter terms, but well above the average
Alfalfa we currently see on the market in many parts of the
world.
Table 1 - Nutritional characteristics of
alfalfa hays of various quality categories*
*CP is crude protein; SolP estimates CP
instantly soluble in the rumen; ADIP estimates indigestible CP; UIP estimates CP
that escapes the rumen intact; NDF estimates total structural fiber; ADF
estimates the portion of NDF that is not hemicellulose; TDN is total digestible
nutrients; Nel is net energy for lactation. TDN is calculated as: (82.38 -
(.7515 x ADF%)) x 0.9 and Nel is calculated from TDN as: ((.0245 x TDN%) - 0.12)
x 0.454.
[Source: WHAT ARE DAIRY
NUTRITIONISTS LOOKING FOR IN ALFALFA HAY? by Peter H. Robinson University
of California, Davis.]
The higher the protein the less one needs of the
more expensive protein ingredients in a ration, so quality alfalfa can reduce
the cost of the rations. Many countries are dependent on imported Soya for
a high protein ingredient. The higher the protein in alfalfa the more
vitamins and minerals also, and as can be seen in the above table greater
digestibility. Every effort
needs to be made to achieve quality Alfalfa.
To ensure high levels of ostrich production it is
imperative that every effort be made to produce quality Alfalfa rather than
simply seek alternatives.
5. Alfalfa/Lucerne - Water
Consumption
Farmers in regions that have water shortages or
expensive water for irrigation, have to weigh up the commercial value of the
crops they produce under irrigation. In this equation the full value of
Alfalfa is often not fully appreciated. I remember well being asked by a
large production unit as long ago as 1998 if we could formulate rations without
using Alfalfa because of the high water requirement. My answer was
no...those producers are no longer in the industry. That country has a
very high yielding dairy industry that I learned last year cannot overcome some
of the problems associated with high yielding dairy herds when not fully nutritionally
supported; there is no known substitute for Alfalfa to support high yielding
dairy cattle.
All forage crops require water for production
and in dry areas irrigation is needed, so it only makes sense to irrigate the
most productive forage crop available. Alfalfa is in a class of it's own
amongst forage crops.
Pages 20 to 23 of "Alfalfa, Wildlife and the
Environment - The Importance and Benefits of Alfalfa in the 21st Century"
referenced above cover this issue in some depth.
6. Alfalfa/Lucerne - Productive
Value
The productive value of Alfalfa needs to be fully
understood, not simply for it's cash value but also the value in cost effective
dairy and red meat production including ostrich meat production, which is a red
meat. Worthy of note in this discussion is that poultry do not do
well on Alfalfa.
Alfalfa provides high yields, can be grown in most
climates and has disease resistance and excellent feeding quality.
Alfalfa is palatable and nutritious with excellent feeding quality. When
produced correctly Alfalfa is high in protein and in addition provides a
tremendous source of organic vitamins and minerals. Alfalfa is also
an integral component of crop rotations because of it's ability to fix nitrogen,
improve soil structure and tilth and control weeds in subsequent crops.
Alfalfa is an essential
component of commercially viable ostrich production
7. Contributions
As always, I ask for contributions from Country Liaisons and other members. A sharing of your experiences, what is happening in your area - anything you believe that would be of interest to other members. Any contributions for inclusion in future news letters please send to Fiona at [email protected].
Any comments or suggestions, please post either to the members list [email protected] or Craig at [email protected]