Changes in the Feeding Strategies of Cattle Herds in the Dairy Basin of the City of Sikasso in Mali

Abstract

In the last decades, cattle feeding became the main constraint after disease management. A study was carried out in the periurban area of Sikasso, an average size city in the cotton area of Mali, to characterize changes in the feeding strategies of breeders selling dairy products in town. A retrospective survey involving 27 herd managers was conducted to identify changes in practices on the long term. Fourteen herds were monitored during one year to characterize and quantify feeding practices and milk production. Four feeding strategies of animal husbandry were distinguished: 1) sedentary grazing herds, with low supplementation, mainly for draft, and young animals; 2) sedentary grazing herds, with low supplementation of dairy cows; 3) transhumant herds, with dairy cows staying near the town for the sale of milk, and low supplementation of dairy cows; 4) herds grazing far away from town, with dairy cows kept in town and fed high levels of concentrates. Herd mobility resulted from a decrease in grazing lands around the town. Supplementation, based on forage biomass reserves and above all purchased concentrates, was made available to agropastors through an advance on the benefits of cotton or milk sales, but it was hard to maintain on the long term. Profits from the trade enabled a few breeders in town to develop a herd of improved dairy cows fed large amounts of concentrates.