1. Importance of feed in livestock sector
The success of livestock farming is largely dependent on the continuous supply of good quality
nutritious feeds at competitive price. Feed alone constitute about 60-70 per cent of total cost of
production of livestock products. Therefore, it needs more attention though other factors are also
important for remunerative return from livestock enterprises. The farmers used to feed the crop
residues to the cattle and buffaloes, however, sheep and goat are normally maintained on
grazing/browsing with supplementary feeding of broken grains/other byproducts. Therefore, feeding of
balanced concentrate feed to these animals was not common, because of low productivity and
unremunerative prices for the livestock products. The improved poultry is fed only with concentrated
feed. The requirement of food of animal origin like milk, meat and eggs is increasing at a faster rate
due to increased awareness about the significance of protective proteins for the maintenance of human
health. The farmers realized the importance and started rearing good quality and high productive
animals/birds under stall fed conditions.
