dear all,
can any body help with the details of hydroponics fodder cultivation?
what is the cost of the machine?
what is the operating cost?
how much is the seed requirement?
where can i get training?
what is the expected out put?
what is the nutritive value of the forage produced?
can it replace or substantially bring down the level of concentrates?
HYDROPONICS FODDER ?
Thats good , but sir , pls explain which livestock you are going to breed, goat / cow ?
is it to be kept in door or grazing , /
is it for milk or meat ,?
do you have good rain fall, like a rain in 2 weeks or so ?
whats the acreage ?
how many heads do you plan to breed ?
do you have electricity?
Well water ?
do you have experience in this field?
do you know how many varieties of fodder are available there to feed your animals ?
and finally , the word hydroponics is very very vast , my friend , Please explain in detail what do you mean by growing fodder thru hydroponics.?
Ramprakash L Chandra
Hydroponic fodder cultivation is not feasible economically.
The quick growth of seeds is at the cost of the energy and other nutrients already stored in seeds. Actually the fodder that’s obtained has lower DM value than the seeds which makes it completely avoidable. Why not feed the grains/seeds directly?
Dear Ramaprakash sir,
i am planning to start a dairy farm of 20 cross breed hf cows at calicut district in kerala
i have all the infrastructural facilities and good rainfall for about six months a year.
i am new to this industry and came to know about the hydroponics maize cultivation from the assistant director of animal husbandry department kerala for wayandu district.
but i did not get an accurate info from him regarding the suitability of this technique. the department level officers are trying to push it up and to get a practical understanding, i have no reference available but the internet. some people say that by feeding hydroponic maize, one can subsatantially bring down the amount of concentrates to be fed. i want a detatiled and accurate information regarding the nutritional value of ydroponics fodder vis a vis other concentrate mixes including oil cakes, corm. tapioca etc.
Dear Prasham
I agree with your idea. Hydroponics is a burning topic in farmnest, consultants want snatch clients
from farmnest.No one is ready to give any correct remeady to the members, and want to make the
topic more elastic with no benefits to our valuable member. This is the reflection of the mails
received from our valuable members, I once again requesting the consultants to disclose some
details to our members, though i am disclosing lot of things, my manufacturing company is growing
too fast. Any way low cost polyhouse- for fodder production is much cheaper in all season/
summer season go with Precission farming. 4m X 6m polyhouses are suitable for year round
rotation production. foliar spraying calcium ,micronutrients will reduce the extra feeding.
Thank you
Good luck
09947892496/ d.s.sureshkumar68@gmail.com
Actually even the so called experts are facing many issues with Hydroponics.
There no one supplying any type of nutrients, hardware or anything else.
The initial cost is so high that commercial trial of numerous is not feasible.
These so called Experts are extremely insecure as well as greedy. They do not understand that in this business only sky is the limit. No body is going to eat anyone else’s share.
Anyone really willing to understand Hydroponics book yourself on a plane to Israel and take tour of the hydroponic/airoponic farms there. You’ll get lots of details. Better you take a year off and go there to take some experience there.
Dear Mr .uvaispulisseri
Good the above info will and can guide you Thru the initial stage , i am no expert nor a consultant or even will ever try to sell you any services or products,
So my friend , i am only sharing my very little experience in Malaysia and Australia , Please check with more experienced dairy industry farmers,not consultants.
since you only going to have 20 heads , you will need some where around average 20 acres of fodder planting area (Max)
and i suggest you plant at least 7 acres of Napier .(this huge sized sugar cane like grass is perfect for dairy, for you to cut and feed it to cattle’s, nowadays there are tractor mounted cutter in India and this plants will last for like 15 years , you just have to cut every 25 day and it will continuously , take care of your feed need.and in the initial stage it might take 4 months to be in the cutting cycle.also my friend you will need a diesel engined grass chopper/ cutter ,
plant 3 acre of guinea grass ( this variety is great for grazing and exercise, you can buy the seeds, like 5kg will be OK for 3 acres, you also may cut and feed it to animals), based on my personal , plant this variety with a thick layer of river sand as base, as the grazing animal will have their hoofs rub-ed and you might not need to cut the hoofs,
and make like 3 paddocks out of this 3 acres , and allow this animal in a single paddoc for period like 2 weeks for each paddock, and after they have cleaned out a paddock then move them to another and rejuvenate the damaged one like ploughing and replanting, and so on.
the balance acreage ,you may plant Maize or any corn variety,
you might need the grains too and i have choped the corn stalks and feed it to the cattle too.
if you have good labours , then collect the corns and admixed it with the Napier grass and its perfect feed it the whole animals.
NUTRIENTS NEED :
don’t buy any chemical fertilizer for the whole planting exercise.(trust me)
get your self chicken dung (a 300 tonne , if possible )
spread it evenly onto the entire land area, and get a tractor to plough it into the soil,leave it for like 10 days , after a few rain start planting, that’s it ,
chicken dug have like 10% in weight of needed calcium for the dairy animals,it also have all the needed NPK,Mg, and all the other micro nutrients too,
you only need to redo this once every 10 months or so.
HYDROPONICS : means WATER - WORKS (thats all, harnessing water and its works to our benefit,dont get too carried away into this subjects,i think i know , what is your requirement, lets see if i understand you ,follow this guide and your watering problem will be over,)
now to answer the main question, in your case ,
i think you are worried about irrigating the fodder , right ?
in your case , you dont have to admix the soluble fertilizer with water and irrigate it , like the micro drip irrigation, this is very bad for the animal too , the soluble fert is economical and also dont spray it too , it contains Molydenum , which can harm your milk producing cattle too,
the napier grass / corn will need to be watered almost daily , so if its not raining for a week or so , please use tall sprinklers and use a pump to give water , thats all , the fertrlizer is already in the ground, just water it. the cheapest sprinkler will have at least 6 meter radius fit at 6 meter rows , and have a control valve in each row, (best poly pipe) if the preasure is not enough, shut down a few row and later play by taking turns ,thats all,one pump set is ok , for the whole area,
the smaller grass , you can irrigate ,with short sprinklers, use the same pumpset too,you will need to learn a little of how poly pipe work , its easy a few day of learning will make you do it yourself,
no need for you to buy any micro tubes / drip irrigations, its only good for edible plants,
Best of luck mate, its not rocket science, just do it .
Ramprakash L Chandra
Dear Mr Prasham,
your question:
Hydroponic fodder cultivation is not feasible economically.
The quick growth of seeds is at the cost of the energy and other nutrients already stored in seeds. Actually the fodder that’s obtained has lower DM value than the seeds which makes it completely avoidable. Why not feed the grains/seeds directly?
DONT FEED YOUR ANIMAL WITH MORE THAN 6% OF PURE GRAINS IN ITS DIET MIX,
IT WILL CREATE GAS BUILT UP IN THE STOMACH AND CAN KILL THE ANIMAL:
I SEE ANGER HERE, Why,
i dont know who is doing this noble job of running this site, but its noble, felt like contributing some monetary support.
anyway if we have something to give and share, lets do it , dont worry about others and their choice , after all its how the world functions, right ?
take care friends ,
Ramprakash L Chandra
Thanks RamprakashLChandra. The best thing anyone can contribute on the site is sharing information and providing advice to others.
farmnest.com/About#Support_us
Excellent stuff sir. I am glad we have one more expert here. Please keep posting.
…
What I meant in my previous post was that Hydroponic cultivaton of fodder is not viable as the DM value is reduced to support the quick growth. Actually the quick growth is nothing more than water. The comparison here is with conventional farm grown grass which is much richer than the hydroponic variety.
Thanks for your pointer regarding feeding pure grains. Can one feed some extra in form of flour?
Dear prasham,
Gujarat is the right place to get all nutrients(technical) for hydroponics/any agri.projects. If you
need any assistance ,plse contact me.
Thank you
@ Biofarms:
If you can provide any details regarding Hydroponic Nutrient suppliers, please post it right here. It will be beneficial for many other members too.
Dear prasham
Contact Universal chemicals ,Ahmedabad - Give my reference
Mr.Seth Dharmesh-09898722999
thank you
Good luck
Hi all,
Based on my personal experience , fertilizing fodder with cash purchased chemical will hurt the breeders economicaly,
all needed nutrients is ample in chicken dung itself. it will give all the needed super growth, its cheaper too,
and if at all you need to really boost the growth rate , make chicken dung slurry from fresh dung, all the amonical (N) will be absorbed br the napier fast, you will see dark green leafs, (studies show its has 20% protien in dried weight)
and also its is a slow release fert, ask any farmers, they might be help to you ,
and pls dont call me expert, i am only an amature/ learning horticulturist
all my views (not advice,ok) are from earlier failures,
and you may add flour in your feed mix , but keep it at less than 3%,
but in india , you have ample choice , like kernal cakes or so on , why expensive materials ?
I am from Gujarat. I have personally checked with the guy who provide Hydoponics unit to various NGOS as well as commercial. The unit cost is Rs. 12.5 lacs and to produce aprx 1000kg grass aprx 165kg Maize required. so unless there is subsidy in unit and availability of subsided Maize, the grass production through this unit is not viable at all., but the buety of this product is size it can easily fit in to a reasonable size of the room. but the fact is that not viable.
Hi i was looking to buy a hydroponic fodder for my goats, i thought it will useful for forum members.
Please contact Plant Genome Sciences, Andheri (E), Mumbai for supply of Hydroponic Nutrients. Plant Genome Sciences Pvt Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Advanced Nutrients and aims to be a leading Asian manufacturer and marketer of plant nutrients, hydroponics equipment, soil conditioning agents and greenhouse structures. The Indian division is set up with a vision to provide quality plant nutrients, innovative technological know-how and all-inclusive end-to-end solutions to the evolving agriculture industry in Asia, Africa and the Middle Eas
Sir,
However noticed that aprx 165km seeds required to produce 325+kg fodder, means aprx 0.500gm for 1kg green fodder at present market rate of seeds, how it would be viable. ??
And per seed section it would be 1 section only. so how it would be economically viable. so instead of that take land on lease and do fodder cultivation would not make more workable??
awaiting know the economics of fodder cultivation through hydroponics.
rgs
mathew
Mod Note:
Please do not advertise your products on the forum; use the Ads section to post details of your products.
Feel free to discuss the details and viability of the technology on this topic/forum, however.
Thanks.