Recently one of the new responsibility I have been entrusted is taking care of a small diary intiative and associated small scale farming. This has led us to look into various aspects of cost effectively running the farm. One of my most important criteria was to adapt as much from traditional methods and run a sustainable, eco-friendly unit with as much job creation as possible.

Currently both my family and majory are using CO3 Hybrid Naper grass for green fodder which seems to be containing calcium solution Oxylates causing Calcium deficiency by preventing Calcium in cattle ie often milking cows.[3] This also increases the possibility of kidnet stones.

We reached a decision to not to feed the dairy animals with CO3 grasses or any grass that has near poiosonous amounts of calcium soluabe Oxlaytes. Alternate fodder investigation took a sudden and suprising turn as we stumbled upon the possibility of Moringa as fodder and our research has shown not just the usage of Moringa as fodder but numerous other uses including Blood Pressure control, Fish food, Moringa Oil uses and needless to say its considered to be a "Miracle Tree"

Moringa has the scientific name Moringa oleifera

We have decided to plant the seeds beloging to PKM1 in near 1 acre land and I am sure the story is to continue as the usage of the plants seems to be aligned with our future plans for areo-ponics for fodder cultivation, Fish and enquariy into Aquaponics etc.

Ounce by ounce, it has the Calcium of four glasses of milk, the vitamin C of seven oranges, four times the vitamin A of carrots, two times the protein of yoghurt, and three time the potassium of bananas. [reference): 1

Why Choose Moringa ?

Moringa can be Fish food and the Aquaponics (aeroponics)- for fodder can be accelerated by spraying Moringa plant extracts. Further the amounts of vitamins, minerals and calcium content will provide a natural source of healthy nutrients for the diary animals. We are planning to mix dry straw, green fodder, sprouts of wheat and maize which is grown locally. The green fodder will be a mix of Moringa and CO5. The Hyrbrid CO5 is comparitevely higher in nutrients and has slighly lower oxylates. We will have to look out for the adverse effects of Nitrates and almost find mineral salts / mineral blocks to suppliment the mineral needs of the diary animals. Our decision to choose moriga is expected to help us with:

• Reduce the impact of Oxylates in the CO5 Hyrbrid Napier
• Completely avoid use of CO3 Hybrid Napier
• Reduce the amount of artificil mineral and Vitamin supplements to stay organic and healthy
• Use Moringa Leaf extract to speed up the seed germination and growth in the aeroponics treatment unit
• The remaining foilage and waste ie expected to produce rich manure for the CO5 which is rich in Calcium to supress Oxylated content
• The gober and slurry which is used as a fertilizer is further expected to reduce the oxylate contents in CO5 and increase the quantiy of Calcium in the soil
• The large pond is expected to provide enough water to help fish cultivation atleast at an experimental level and moringa leaves can be used as a source of food
• Moringa is undoubtebly a source of nutrients of humans and we are interested in exploring possibilities of moringa farming at larger scale if the pilot is a success.

Nutrient comparison of Moringa & CO3

The Hybrid Napier CO3 (elephant gras)s breed types raised curiocity and I started exploring the same. One common complaint that big as well as small dairy owners in Wayanad complained about was the "sudden collapse" of cows which is attributed to lack of Calcium. This has happned in almost all farms irrespective of whether the cows are given artifical calcium suppliments or otherwise. It was a suprise to the author as milk is supposed to be rich in Calcium !

Further protiens and other minerals are undoubtebly a major requirement for animals. Protients, Minerals, Calories for Energy etc cannot be easily put into numbers but in general 15% of the body mass of an animal is supposed to be the dry matter (DM) in take and 50% of which can be Calories, 10% can be proteins, minerals, water etc.

The following tables has details of Nutrients:

Nutritional value of Moringa oleifera per 100 grams of edible portion:	Moringa Pods	Moringa Leaves	Moringa Leaf Powder
Moisture (%)	86.9	75.0	7.5
Calories	26.0	92.0	205.0
Protein (g)	2.5	6.7	27.1
Fat (g)	0.1	1.7	2.3
Carbohydrate (g)	3.7	13.4	38.2
Fiber (g)	4.8	0.9	19.2
Minerals (g)	2.0	2.3	-
Ca (mg)	30.0	440.0	2,003.0
Mg (mg)	24.0	24.0	368.0
P (mg)	110.0	70.0	204.0
K (mg)	259.0	259.0	1,324.0
Cu (mg)	3.1	1.1	0.6
Fe (mg)	5.3	7	28.2
S (mg)	137.0	137.0	870.0
Oxalic acid (mg)	10.0	101.0	0.0
Vitamin A - B carotene (mg)	0.1	6.8	16.3
Vitamin B -choline (mg)	423.0	423.0	-
Vitamin B1 -thiamin (mg)	0.05	0.21	2.6
Vitamin B2 -riboflavin (mg)	0.07	0.05	20.5
Vitamin B3 -nicotinic acid (mg)	0.2	0.8	8.2
Vitamin C -ascorbic acid (mg)	120	220.0	17.3
Vitamin E -tocopherol acetate (mg)	-	-	113.0
Arginine (g/16g N)	3.6	6.0	0.0
Histidine (g/16g N)	1.1	2.1	0.0
Lysine (g/16g N)	1.5	4.3	0.0
Tryptophan (g/16g N)	0.8	1.9	0.0
Phenylanaline (g/16g N)	4.3	6.4	0.0
Methionine (g/16g N)	1.4	2.0	0.0
Threonine (g/16g N)	3.9	4.9	0.0
Leucine (g/16g N)	6.5	9.3	0.0
Isoleucine (g/16g N)	4.4	6.3	0.0
Valine (g/16g N)	5.4	7.1	0.0

A split up of nutrients in various parts of the Moringa plant:

Moringa	DM	CP	EE	CF	Ash
Moringa fodder leaves	7.8	21.87	6.5	4.5	12
Moringa fodder stem	8.0	8.75	2	20	12.5
Moringa fodder leaves and stem	7.6	15.31	3	14.5	12
Moringa tree leaves	8.6	23.51	3	7.5	13.5
Moringa tree stem	8.6	10.93	1	26.5	10.5
Moringa tree leaves and stem	9.2	16.41	2.5	17.5	11

DM = dry matter; CP = crude protein; EE = ether extract; NDF = neutral detergent fiber; ADF = acid detergent fiber.

** Nutrient value of CO3 Hybrid Napier Grass ** [reference]: 4

Dry matter 16.20 %

Crude Protein 9.38 %

Calcium 0.88 %

Phosphorus 0.24 %

Oxalates (Max) 2.97 %

Digestibility 58.00 %

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Some forages contain anti-nutrition factors such as oxalate, nitrates and cyanides etc. which can greatly affect on animals' health and performances. It has been reported that when ruminants consume plants containing more oxalate for a long period of time, soluble oxalate may combine with calcium (Ca) and form Ca-oxalate which is insoluble, is excreted in feces and also reduces absorption of Ca. Feeding forages that containing 2.0% or more soluble oxalate in dry basis can lead to acute toxicities in ruminants.

From the above tables, its quite clear that the amount of contents of CO3 is of no match for Moringa.

CO 5 - a slightly better alternative

Since the availability of dry straw is very low, we need to find an alternative with higher dry matter content, yield, protien content, lesser Oxylates etc and we have choosen CO (BN) 5 over the other options.

Yield Potential and Quality Characters

PARTICULARS	CO 3	CO (CN) 4	CO (BN) 5
Parentage	Interspecific hybrid between Cumbu PT 1697 x Penneisetumpurpureum	Interspecific hybrid between Cumbu CO 8 x FD 461	Interspecific hybrid between Fodder cumbu IP 20594 x Napier grass FD 437
Duration (Days)	Perennial	Perennial	Perennial
Green fodder yield (t/ha/yr)	350 (7harvests)	375-400 (7harvests)	360 (7harvests)

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Quality characters
Dry matter yield (t/ha/yr)	65.12	79.87	80
Crude protein yield (t/ha)	5.40	8.71	9.6
Dry matter (%)	17.0	21.3	22
Crude protein (%)	10.5	10.71	12
Oxalate (%)	2.51	2.48	****2.4****

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So what are you feeding the cattle ?

We are deciding to go ahead with CO5, use maize and wheat sprounts which are Aeroponically cultivated & Moringa. We are hoping to supplement the adverse effects of Napier Hybrids with protein and calcium rich diet. Further the circulation of slurry which is in turn rich in calcium is expected to balance out the Oxlate and Nitrate content in the fodder.

Discussion

Our attempt is to go gree and organic and depend on sustaiable dairy farming with the usage locally available ingredients, circulate water and slurry to create more value. Our land is has a natural inclination with a planned 12mx10m irrigation pond at comparatively higher gradient location. The rich slurry is pumped back to the higher gradient to further irigate and replenish the rest of the area under CO5 and Moringa cultivation. We are yet to device a mechanism to introduce Moringa extract to speed up the seed germination but I am sure we will come back with this series.

Addendum

The author strongly disagrees with the usage of CO3 grass for dairy animals and consideres it as poison ! — I am writing this content mostly to be used as a reference for myself and as a means to prove my reasoning for choosing both CO5 and Moringa to banks, friends, relatives and rest of the world :-) This is in no way and advisory and feed your animals wisely.``

the moringa Tea!

EDIT:

After this post went live, a user @etilda mentioned about making tea with the plant. So I climbed on the terrace and here is the first cup of Moringa tea which I ever made / tasted.

References:

1. .Potential of Moringa oleifera L. as livestock fodder crop: a review, Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry
2. https://sites.google.com/site/drnmboopathi/projects/moringa-project
3. http://www.biomedsearch.com/article/Effects-calcium-fertilization-oxalate-napiergrass/272246247.html
4. http://www.maralika.com/GRASS.html
5. Effects of Calcium Fertilization on Oxalate of Napiergrass and on Mineral Concentrations in Blood of Sheep http://dx.doi.org/10.5713/ajas.2011.11101
6. G R P Pathmasiri, P & C C Premalal, G & Nayananjalie, Deepthi. (2014). Accumulation of Oxalate and Nitrate in Hybrid Napier var. CO -3 (Pennisetum perpureum X P. americarnum) and Wild Guinea Grass (Panicum maximum). Rajarata University Journal. 2. 27-32.
7. Murali Krishna, K. and Riazuddin Ahmed, S. (2010). Soluble oxalate content accumulation and yield of certain Hybrid Bajra Napier genotypes during summer and their influence on animal diet, Adv. Res. J. Crop Improv., 1 (2) : 153-155.
8. Replacing moringa leaf (Moringa oleifera) partially by protein replacement in soybean meal of fancy carp (Cyprinus carpio) Bundit Yuangsoi and Toshiro Masumoto