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Evaluation of food industry by-products as feed in semi-arid dairy farming systems: the case of Jordan

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Abstract

Dairy feeding systems in many semi-arid countries are based on imported concentrates and forages. This has economic and ecological implications given the increase in global feed prices and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from land use change. This paper aims to explore alternative dairy feeding systems under semi-arid conditions, using Jordan as an example. The feedings systems under investigation vary in their share of food industry by-products (replacing concentrates in the diet) and are compared against the current concentrate-based feeding systems. The systems are evaluated against three criteria: their nutritional value, their impact on the cost of milk production, and their GHG mitigation potential. Feed samples from eleven food industry by-products and ten conventional feeds were collected from food factories and from three typical dairy farms, representing the typical large-, medium- and small-scale farm types, respectively. Feed samples were analysed for their chemical composition and metabolisable energy contents. In addition, economic and production farm data were collected and entered into a model for GHGs calculation and economic evaluation. The results suggest that inclusion of locally available food industry by-products in the rations of milk cows in semi-arid production systems can be instrumental in reducing production costs and mitigating GHG emissions. Cost of milk production in the model farms can be lowered by up to 14 %; mitigation of CO2 eq. emission ranged between 70 and 290 g CO2 eq./kg milk. The degree to which these benefits can be reaped is positively related to the level of inclusion of by-product feeds in lactating cows’ diets.

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Notes

  1. The abbreviation JO-400 indicates the country name (Jordan) and the number of lactating cows per farm (400).

  2. The Activity-Based Costing (ABC) method is a procedure for allocating the total cost of milk production to different activities. The method allocates labour cost, machinery cost, fuel cost, electricity cost and water costs to the following activities: home grown feed production, feeding and manure handling cost, milking, cow handling and finally the farm management. In some cases, allocation was 100 % for feed (the case of purchased feeds), other cost such as labour cost for feeding and manure handling was allocated at 50 % for feeding while 25 % of the machinery cost allocated for feeding, etc. The sum per farm is divided by the quantity of ECM produced on farm to yield an average cost figure.

  3. 1 Livestock unit (LU) = 650 kg live weight (Kirchgessner et al. 1991).

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD) for financial support of this research. We also acknowledge contribution from Dr. Maher Al-Dabbas of the University of Jordan in feed samples analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Christian Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Hermann-Rodewald-Str. 9, 24118, Kiel, Germany

    Othman Alqaisi & Andreas Susenbeth

  2. IFCN Dairy Research Center, Schauenburgerstraße 116, 24118, Kiel, Germany

    Othman Alqaisi & Torsten Hemme

  3. Department of Agricultural Economics, Christian Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Olshausenstraße 40, 24098, Kiel, Germany

    Uwe Latacz-Lohmann

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  1. Othman Alqaisi
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  2. Torsten Hemme
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Correspondence to Othman Alqaisi.

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Handled by Hirotaka Matsuda, The University of Tokyo, Japan.

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Alqaisi, O., Hemme, T., Latacz-Lohmann, U. et al. Evaluation of food industry by-products as feed in semi-arid dairy farming systems: the case of Jordan. Sustain Sci 9, 361–377 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-013-0240-6

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