Progress report for FS23-348
Project Information
Statement of the Proposed Solution
Moringa oleifera is a rapidly growing, high-protein, drought tolerant plant that has been tested successfully as a lamb feed supplement. Researchers tested Moringa leaf and found it contains 28.91% dry matter, 16.52% crude protein, 5.78% ethereal extract, 11.14% ash, 13.14% crude fiber, 30.27% neutral detergent fiber, 20.03% acidic detergent fiber, 5.4% acidic detergent lignin, 10.78% hemicelluloses, 14.63% cellulose, and 1.81% tannins, making Moringa nutritionally compatible to the necessities of growing lambs’ diet (Allam et al. 2015).
In an experiment testing the effects of Moringa seeds as feed additive on the growth and blood biochemistry of Barki sheep at the University of Alexandria in Egypt, researchers found that the average final body weight of lambs supplemented with Moringa seed for 45 days was significantly higher than control lambs (initial live weight of lambs in both conditions was 25.3+0.9 kg, final weight of lambs was 34.5+1.4 kg in Moringa condition compared to 31.5+1.6 kg in control condition, P < 0.001). Researchers also observed that total protein concentration in the blood was higher in the Moringa feeding condition compared to the control feeding condition (5.63±0.16 mg/dL in Moringa condition compared to the control 5.15±0.08mg/dL, P=0.01). Furthermore, researchers observed that all components of collected blood serum were within the normal range for lambs in both conditions, highlighting that Moringa seeds are safe to use as lamb feed supplement (EL-Hedainy et al. 2020).
Similarly, a study at Fayoum University in Egypt testing the effectiveness of Moringa in replacing soybean meal at rates of 0%, 7.5%, 15% and 30% for a period of 90 days found that lambs fed soybean with Moringa supplement cost less to feed and resulted in heavier lambs when compared to lambs fed strictly soybean supplement (relative costs of feed consumed/head/period were 100%, 97.19%, 94.69% and 87.32% for rations of R1=0%, R2=7.5%, R3=15% and R4=30% respectively. The relative percentages of net revenue were 100%, 56.45%, 171.83% and 125.6%). Likewise, researchers observed that all measured blood parameters for all conditions were in the normal range, emphasizing that Moringa leaves are also a safe feed supplement for lambs. Researchers concluded that their results highlight that feeding moringa leaves to growing lambs decreases feed costs and increases economic return (Allam et al. 2015).
In our experiment, we plan to compare the cost of bringing lamb to market with our standard diet of grass and commercial sheep supplement pellets to the cost of bringing lamb to market with a diet of pasture supplemented with meal made from Moringa oleifera that we currently grow on the farm.
The objective of this experiment is to identify if we can maximize the return on our livestock investment by incorporating Moringa oleifera into our lamb feed.
In the end, we plan to calculate the price that we need to sell our lamb at in both control and experimental feeding conditions to keep our agriculture business financially resilient through drought and inflation.
Resources
Allam SM et al. (2015). “Use of Moringa Leaves (Moringa oleifera) in Fattening Lambs Rations.” Egyptian Journal of Nutrition and Feeds, 18(2) Special Issue: 11-17.
Bhokre SM et al. (2020). “Effect of Feeding of Moringa (Moringa oleifera) Leaf Meal Based Diets on the Biometry and Body Condition Score of Deccani Lambs.” International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences
9(4):1089-1096. https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2020.904.129.
EL-Hedainy DK, El-Wakeel E, Rashad AMA (2020). “Effect of Moringa Seed Meal as a Feed Additive on Performance of Fattening Male Barki Sheep.” International Journal for Veterinary Science & Research 6(2): 184-187. DOI: 10.17352/ijvsr.000072.
Approaches and Methods
Lambs in both conditions will be rotationally grazed on pasture for equal amounts of time. In the control condition, lambs will be fed their regular pasture and pellet diet, with 0% of their diet being Moringa. However, in the experimental conditions, we are replacing pellet feed by weight at rates of 15%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% with ground Moringa meal feed grown on the farm.
Moringa meal will be comprised of 80% Moringa leaves and 20% stems. The Moringa meal will be ground and pelletized for feeding.
Lambs all conditions will be fed in individualized feeding pens to ensure that all lambs eat their full serving of the assigned feed supplement. Lambs in all conditions will be fed their assigned feeding condition until they are taken to market. All lambs in this experiment will be born on our farm and be randomly assigned to a feeding condition immediately after weaning.
Variables to Measure
The live weight of the lambs in both conditions will be measured prior to being randomly assigned to a feeding condition.
Live weight will be measured once per week during the experiment, before feedings, and at the end of the experimental trial.
Final market weight after meat processing will also be measured.
Feed supplements in both conditions will be weighed and packaged prior to feeding lambs to measure and track the amount of feed supplement consumed by each lamb.
Time spent prepacking feed will be measured to calculate costs of labor associated with control and experimental feeding conditions.
Financial Sustainability Calculations
By tracking costs associated with watering pasture, feed pellet supplements, and labor associated with preparing Moringa pellets as well as feeding and herding lambs, we will be able to calculate and graph the cost of feed for each condition throughout the life of the lamb.
Cooperators
- (Researcher)
Research
In our experiment, we plan to compare the cost of bringing lamb to market with our standard diet of grass and commercial sheep supplement pellets to the cost of bringing lamb to market with a diet of pasture supplemented with meal made from Moringa oleifera that we currently grow on the farm.
The objective of this experiment is to identify if we can maximize the return on our livestock investment by incorporating Moringa oleifera into our lamb feed.
In the end, we plan to calculate the price that we need to sell our lamb at in both control and experimental feeding conditions to keep our agriculture business financially resilient through drought and inflation.
Date: April 1, 2023 – March 31, 2024
Basic information, in 2023 we lost our buck the beginning of 2023 and has so we lost one breading cycle.
Ricardo Garcia: Educator moved on to work for University of Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). So, this project did not get a start until the end of the July 2023 year.
We hired Dairon De La Torre who is not a researcher but has experience with documentation of data collection for investigations. He did this work in his country Cuba for medical research. Dairon helped us get started with the Lamb, we used a small pellet machine we had at the farm but did not like how it
worked, so we will be purchased the larger one, we listed on the grant. We did purchase the scale to start the grant. We have 40 lambs for this investigative research working plan. 40 lambs are part of the program 20 are subsidized moringa and the others only hay. We are not grazing due to lack of water for the grass fields. Irrigation is currently restricted and has been for the last two years. We were able to harvest quality hay with mother nature’s rain with is fed to the lamb. We are in a severe drought making this fantastic research to be doing.
Findings: Ewe’s fed quality hay and moringa coat looked better thank Ewes fed only quality hay. Ewes that were fed moringa also had healthier looking kids. We had 30 kids born between November and December 11 in group A and 19 in group B. Two deaths due to weather. The change was not significant in weight gain for either the Ewe’s or the kids. The Ewe’s utter did looked fuller than the utters of the Ewe’s not fed moringa.
Moringa does well in drought, it needs very little water so we are able to harvest morning for the animals. Moringa froze but did not die down totally and came back very fast. We raise our own hay so we do not know the expense of buying have. Only information we are provided. One large roll can cost
75-150 dollars. We make square and round bales of hay. We use 4 square bales in group A and 3 square bale per day on each group B. Group B also receives 10lbs of dry moringa. We started with pellets and the machine was not making them very good so we started using dry leaves. We still feel pellets are better because they take up less space.
Our finding so far would if we had to purchase hay it would be beneficial to grow the moringa because it saves at least 1/3 of the cost of feed no change in weight but no loss either. We will continue to document this information for year two.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
Outreach Plan
We not only want to share our methodology and findings with our fellow farmers and ranchers, we also want to share our lamb with new and existing lamb customers.
To achieve this goal, we plan to host an event at the restaurant of one of our current lamb customers, inviting other restaurant owners that serve lamb alongside our fellow farmers and ranchers.
In addition to a presentation of our methods and findings, we also plan to hold a recreational taste testing of lambs in both feeding conditions. We will hold a fun blindfolded competition to see who can tell the difference between Moringa fed lamb and our regularly fed lamb. We also plan to contact local news outlets to come and participate so that we can get a marketing boost from our community outreach efforts.
In all, we want to invite farmers, ranchers, and customers to taste our lamb in a space where we can share our findings in a jovial manner, helping us inform our fellow farmers and ranchers on how to increase their operations’ financial sustainability while at the same time marketing our product to our community.
Learning Outcomes
Cost-Reduction of hay to Lamb