Effect of Feeding Hydroponic Fodders on the Performance of Dairy Cattle and Small Ruminants: - A Review

The main issue with livestock production is the lack of quality and quantity feed. Further, the non-availability of quality fodders around the year aggravates the constraints of. Further complicating the challenges of sustainable livestock farming is the year round high quality fodder. A force to adopt the environmentally friendly practices of producing fodder (hydroponic technology) is important to satisfy the demand of green fodder in the dairy industry. Plants are grown for brief (5-10 days) period without soil in hydroponic systems for the production of fodder. In many parts of the world, hydroponic fodder has a great promise for sustainable animal agriculture because of its effectiveness in addressing the global feed shortage. Hydroponic fodder is extremely competitive in the cattle farming industry due to its increased digestibility and palatability qualities. The advantages of feeding hydroponics fodder for livestock are increases milk yield and composition, dry matter intake, digestibility of nutrients, and it is important to improve the health status and daily body weight gain of calves, sheep, and goats. Keywords: - body weight, health status, hydroponic fodder, milk yield DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/12-13-03 Publication date:July 31st 2022