Evaluation of Total Roughage Production and its Sufficiency for Livestock in Turkey

Abstract

In this study, total roughage production and its sufficiency for farm animals in Turkey was evaluated. Because of insufficient production, feed prices are relatively high and fluctuating in Turkey. It was estimated that, the total 40 363 210 tonnes of roughages production in Turkey was supplied by meadows and pastures (13 164 210 tonnes), shrublands (11 267 000 tonnes) and forage crops production (15 932 000 tonnes). In addition, total straw and stubble production was estimated as 31 074 800 tonnes for animal feed, indicating that half of the total roughages production in Turkey came from straw and stubble production. In Turkey, the large and small ruminant stock is composed of a total of 17 066 900 animal units and in order to meet only the maintenance requirements of these animals via roughage, 77 867 731 tons of roughage is needed in 2019. Considering the daily dry roughage requirement as 12.5 kg (approximately 2.5 percent of total 500 kg live weight), deficiency of daily feed amount was estimated as 1.032 kg per animal unit and a total of 6 429 720 tonnes in 2019 in Turkey. If shrublands, straw and stubble production is neglected or removed from the calculation, then total deficiency reaches at 48 771 521 tonnes year-1 (62.63% of the total feed requirement). For a rational animal feeding, not only the maintenance requirements of the animals but also, in addition to their maintenance requirements, at least 5-7 kg of milk production requires meeting from quality roughages. In this case, it is clear that the need for roughage will increase more. In Turkey, suffering from roughage shortage that adversely affecting production obtained from small and large ruminants, high quality forage production should be, at least, doubled by using every possible resource including natural rangelands, fallows, and cultivated lands effectively without compromising soil conservation and feed costs principles.