SMALL RUMINANTS

PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

1- Village system
2- Extensive system
3- Semi-intensive system
4- Very intensive system and
5- Integrated with cropping
Village, extensive and integration with cropping
systems are traditional.
Both tethering and the extensive systems
embrace the traditional village system typical in
Africa, Central America and South east Asia.
Animals browse and scavenge on what feeds are
immediately available near the farm and the
households.
Feed them with kitchen remnants.
Tethering and extensive production are the most
common systems.
VILLAGE SYSTEM
one is tethering(1-5)
where intensive crop cultivation.
kitchen remnants and
crop residues
Remain in the vicinity of village.
EXTENSIVE SYSTEM
Extensive grazing is common where there is access
to common
Riverside/canal banks
Marginal land
Post harvest grazing lands
Salinity and waterlogged grazing
Range lands
family labour mainly women and children.
Flock sizes are large (1-15) and goats often mixed
with sheep belonging to several owners are run and
flocked together.
Stocking rate ranges 1-4/ha
Very extensive systems are rare outside pastoralist
societies, presumably because of availability of
forages and crop residues.
In the extensive system, sheep and goats graze
over large areas, usually on marginal lands

The system includes

NOMADIC,
TRANSHUMANT AND
SEDENTARY PATTERNS OF PRODUCTION
concentrates, salt or mineral licks are provided.
 SEMI-INTENSIVE SYSTEMS
Semi-intensive systems are a compromise
between the extensive and intensive systems.
Limited grazing or stall feeding is practiced
depending on the availability of time, labor and
also feeds. It is essentially a part-time
operation, like the village systems.
Duration of grazing is variable but is about
4-6 hours daily, usually in the late morning or
evening. The goats are then housed and given
cut forage, mainly tree leaves or crop residues.
Very seldom are concentrates offered.
 VERY INTENSIVE SYSTEMS
fed in confinement with limited access to
land.
system with a high labor and cash input.
Cultivated grasses and by-products are fed
Very intensive systems are of two categories;
intensive use of cultivated forages or stall
feeding. Although goats prefer to browse in
comparison to grazing, they can efficiently use
cultivated pastures for meat or milk
production. Stocking rates of the order of 37 –
126 goats/ha have been reported depending on
the type of grass used, level of fertilizer
application and the presence of legumes.
 Table-1. Carrying capacity of pasture for adult goats in various parts of the tropics
Carrying capacity Production
Type of grass (goats per ha) (kg/ ha)
Panagola grass 37-45 463-563
(Digitaria decumbens) Dressed carcass
Panagola grass 62 14,150 (Milk)
30 days regrowth 75 11,500
50 days regrowth 102 21,200
30 days regrowth +Concentrates 126 14500
50 days regrowth +Concentrates
Annual ryegrass (Lolium perenne) 40 2,054 (Milk)
50 2,045
60 2,667
Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiforum) 52 7,445 (Milk)
Annual ryegrass 52 7,020 ( Milk)
Annual ryegrass 60 3,696 (Milk)
Annual rye grass 95 3149 (Milk)
concentrates 6,048
Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon) 45 2,419
48
Setaria Selivalva 40 638 bio-mass
 Most intensive form of production is zero grazing, but this
requires high labor and capital investment.
where land is limited, but there exist abundant supplies of
crop residues and agro-industrial by-products.
Probably because of the high capital investment, the system
has not been adequately used.
In fiji, stall fed meat goats given sugar-cane tops, Stover’s
and straw, coconut cake, rice bran and molasses reached
23 – 25 kg live weight in about 22 weeks with a gain of 154
g/day, compared to 83 g/day in the extensive system.
Feeding of agro-industrial by-products such as rice straw
with molasses-urea available in monsoon Asia, with yields of
about 2.4 tons/hectare. control over the animals.
A variation of intensive production based on a stall feeding
approach is feedlot fattening. it has been used successfully
where agro-industrial by-products are plentiful.
 INTEGRATION WITH CROPPING SYSTEMS
This system is especially common in the humid and
sub-humid regions of the tropics where there is intensive
crop production. The system is closely associated with
the different patterns of crop production
 The advantages of the system are:

(a) improved fertility by return of dung and urine;

(b) control of waste herbage growth;
(c) reduced use of weedicides
(d) reduced fertilizer wastage
(e) easier management of the crop and
(f) possibility of increasing crop yields

carrying capacity 10-37 Heads/ha.

.
The feed cost in each of the production
systems is different and in itself represents
an important determinant of the ultimate
economic benefit.
In Malaysia, for example, the proportion
of total costs attributable to feed for goats
grazing uncultivated grass for meat was
2.2 %, for goats stall fed with cultivated
grass for meat, feed represented 23 % of
the total cost and for goats stall fed on
cultivated grass and concentrates for milk
was 48.2 %.
 Comparison of Production systems
Particulars Village Extensive Semi- Intensive Integrated
Intensive
Labor Cost less Less Slightly High Less
higher
Capital Cost Less Less Higher Very high less
Financial Low Low Medium High Low
Grazing Uncontrolled Total Controlled Zero Post-harvest
4-6 hours 8-10 4-6 High quality 2-3
Health Satisfactory Less Better Best Satisfactory
Parasitic Low Very low Better Best Low
Control
Crop Residue More Less More More More
Feed Cost (%) 10 2-5 25-50 50-75 5-10
Growth rate Low 50g 50g 50-100 150-250 50-100
Management Traditional Traditional Better Improved Better
Housing Satisfactory Open barn Better Complete Better
Facilities
 Questions answered

 What are the driving forces for a production system

 What resources are required for variation in production system
 Which areas are grazed by sheep and goats
 Difference between sheep and goat eating habits
 Health and parasitic control
 Benefits and disadvantages of various systems
 Soil-animal-plant-environment relationship
 Supplements and concentrate feeding
 Tethering and free movement reservations
 Relationship of high moisture and plant growth
 Types of vegetation fed to animals
 Carrying capacity and Stocking rate.