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COSTA RICA |
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Experts
Recommend Taking Measures Before The Start
Of The Dry Season
(InfoWebPress) To successfully be able to
face the dry season, the national
agricultural authorities called out to all
the livestock owners of the country to take
preventive measures that go from the
incorporation of fodder banks (areas of
their farm planted with perennial or
occasional forage), strategies for managing
floor grass, forage conservation, herd
selection to supplement and feeding.
Furthermore, the following was recommended:
an extraction of unproductive animals during
November and December, implementing a
program of herd management that contemplates
pasture grounds, parasite control,
vaccination, supplementation practice and
silo usage.
“It is necessary to reduce the animal load
on the farm with the objective of prolonging
the availability of forage resources and to
encourage a more efficient use. Also,
discard animals that present physical
problems, those most susceptible to high
temperatures and the more reproductively
deficient, as well as those in the final
stages of the fattening process”, added
Oscar Vasquez, the Regional Director for the
Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG
for its abbreviation in Spanish) of the
Chorotega Zone.
The investigator of the Institute of
Innovation and Research in Agricultural
Tecnology Transfer (INTA for its
abbreviation in Spanish), recommends
planting a few forages such as sugar cane,
King grass, camerum, sorghum and oats, as
well as legumes such as cratylia argente,
leucadena, poro, black tree, perennial
peanut and other bushes like mulberry and
nacedero.
“For a livestock owner that has 20 beef cows
or 20 bulls for fattening, must plant sugar
cane (1 hectare), king grass, camerún (3,000
square meters) and bush (0.5 hectare). But
if they do not have any material available
for cutting, they could plant corn or
sorghum (one hectare) to silage and prepare
the terrain with minimum work”, added
Sanchez.
The experts recommend utilizing a good
forage to elaborate silos with, to harvest
at the proper age and adequate
characteristics, chop in pieces no greater
tan 2 cm long, ensure that the place that is
going to be used for ensilage purposes is
hermetic, compact in layers no greater than
25 cm deep to achieve the extraction of the
greatest amount of air posible between the
particles of the chopped material and as a
final measure seal the silo hermetically.
The silo is a part of an animal’s daily
diet, and must be accompanied with other
food, like floor grass, sugar cane and king
grass. As long as it is not opened and no
air or water gets it, it can last forever.
According to Sanchez, supplementing is a
strategic practice in the summer and can be
done in one of three ways: in the pasture
(offering supplemental food in gutters or on
the ground), in semi housing (aside from the
pasture, being given supplemental feeding in
gutters) and housing (offering the food they
need in facilities or in a corral).
Another option is the utilization of bales
of hay. To elaborate them a clear and sunny
day must be chosen, the grass is cut and
laid out on the ground for two to three
hours, and then turn it around to let the
side that has not been exposed dry out and
repeat the process until the desired level
of dryness that wants to be achieved is
there. A fistful of hay can be grabbed in
one fist and squeezed with one’s hands and
the stems should break lightly, conluded the
Regional Director of the MAG for the
Chorotega zone. |
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