USDA Grant: Advancing Livestock Productivity and Emission Reduction through Feed Software in Cambodia, Laos, and Nigeria

Program Overview

The use of advanced technologies in animal production has spurred impressive yields as management decisions have conventionally been focused to improve efficiency, reducing costs, and maximizing profit at the farm level. This approach will continue to translate into growing productivity to fulfill the demands of meat, milk, and eggs of increasing human population, which will also increase GHG emissions, especially in developed countries. U.S. technology that uses a ration formulation software can significantly improve livestock farming productions by integrating locally available ingredients in local language while reducing GHG emissions.

USDA has supported the University of California, Davis, to develop and adapt a livestock feed ration formulation software for a variety of international contexts, including the development of a national feed and forage library database, which also included data on use of premium feed or feed additives, and making the software program available in local languages. Project activities include developing feed ration formulation software, Taurus or PC Dairy, for Cambodia, Laos and Nigeria. The software is a modification of a package of computer programs for formulating and analyzing rations for beef and dairy cattle. Both software programs run on Windows 95 and above. The program comes with an extensive feed library and allows formulation and evaluation of rations for various classes of beef cattle, as well as creating user selected summarization printouts. Locally available feed chemical composition will be integrated into the software depending on the availability of the information. The software programs also include an output of an estimate of GHG emissions based on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommendations. The calculation methodology for GHG is adjusted based on the production system and type of cattle in each target country. The estimates are used for national inventory with additional information of number of cattle.

This proposed follow-on project will improve the use of this software in the context of Cambodia, Laos, and Nigeria; in order to realize increased productivity and yield in livestock sector, and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In particular, it is expected to include:

1. Mobile App Development:

A development of a national feed and forage library database, which also includes data on use of premium feed or feed additives ration is currently under development in local languages in each country (Cambodia, Laos and Nigeria). As the existing application is limited to PCs, adoption and use can be facilitated through a mobile phone app for the targeted countries, and for subsequent trainings to be held with relevant stakeholders; and

2. Training for the feed ration formulation software and app utilization.