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Case Study
Small farmers adopt new techniques for feeding and managing herds
Herd Management Improves Income
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Photo: ACDI/VOCA
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The cows of Gabala suffered from poor health before farmers improved their management.
Through better herd management, small farmers reduced their feeding costs by 31 percent and decreased the fattening period by two months.
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Challenge
In Gabala, a village in Egypt's Fayoum governorate, cows and buffalo were generally unhealthy and suffered
from high death rates due to a lack of vaccinations and imbalanced feeding. Rations given to the animals
during their fattening period consisted only of ready-made pellets and some ground corn. This lack of
protein limited their daily weight gain to about 1 kilogram a day, extending the fattening period from
a standard five months to six or seven months. Farmers also used to purchase their animals from the
market not knowing their exact weight and not relying on specific criteria.
Initiative
USAID worked with Abu Bakr el Sedeek, a group of 30 small farmers in Gabala, to improve the process
they use to fatten their 68 calves. The farmers were shown how to purchase calves by weight, manage disease
and maintain pens. USAID also demonstrated how to feed each animal a nutritionally balanced ration,
according to weight, to improve health and reduce waste. With this knowledge, the members of Abu Bakr
el Sedeek began to purchase their animals more shrewdly, vaccinate them, feed them balanced rations
and dry and disinfect their pens.
Results
The new ration techniques reduced feeding costs from $57 per head per month to $39 per head per month
— a 31 percent decrease. In addition, the fattening period dropped to five months, and the average animal
daily weight gain increased 20-30 percent to 1.2-1.3 kilograms a day. The vaccination program helped
lower death rates and, consequently, the cost of veterinary treatments. In total, these new techniques
save each farmer approximately $70 a head, and the shorter fattening period frees time for the farmers
to start fattening another set of calves.
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