Farmers feed their animals based on their traditional knowledge and information passed through generations with crop residues, locally available one or two feed ingredients like brans, oil-cakes, chunnies, grains etc. and seasonally available green fodders. This leads to an imbalance of protein, energy and minerals in their ration. Animals on such imbalanced ration produce milk sub-optimally, cost of milk production is higher and it affects the health and fertility of animals. Therefore, it is necessary to educate farmers on feeding of balanced ration.
Under INAPH, a software has been developed, that can be used on desktops, laptops, netbooks, tablets as well as phones. With the help of this software balanced ration is formulated considering the animal's profile, i.e. cattle or buffalo, age, milk production, milk fat, and feeding regime etc. and milk producers are advised to adjust the quantity of locally available feed ingredients offered to their animals along with area specific mineral mixture.
Farmers feeding balanced ration in different regions of the country have experienced an increase in their net daily income in the range of Rs 15 to 25 per animal.