Ildus Gabdrakhmanov: the basis of cost effective animal breeding is top quality forage

Harvesting of perennial grain and pulse grasses keeps going on in Tatarstan. “Top quality forage is the basis of cost effective animal breeding, - says Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan Ildus Gabdrakhmanov. – These days are the best period for forage preservation, in a week it will be too late. Day after day fodder crops are loosing their food value. For example, the content of carotene in medic is almost 200 mg/kg in the phase of flower-bud formation, while at the end of blossoming phase it less than 100 mg/kg”.

Tatarstan enterprises have to preserve not less than 1.8 million tons of forage for successful wintering, which is 30 dt of forage per animal. As of today, 2,500 tons of hay and 187,000 tons of haylage have been preserved in Tatarstan (last year figures are 182,000 tons and 811,000 tons correspondingly).

Forage preservation is gaining pace in Alkeevo (20,400 tons of haylage), Zainsk (19,700 tons), Aznakaevo (14,800 tons) and Sarmanovo (15,800 tons) municipal districts. The situation is not very good in Almetyevsk (1,400 tons), Menzelinsk (1,400 tons), Elabuga (1,000 tons) and Tukaevo (400 tons) municipal districts.

Frequent rain prevents hay making, that is why specialists of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan recommend to make as much haylage as possible from the 1st grass cut and to make hay from the 2nd grass cut. It is obligatory to use conserving agents at haylage making because without them the quality of preserved forage will leave much to be desired. Beside this, every director of agricultural enterprise has to examine the content of forage and to adjust the diet of animals.