Summer Fodder Plan: Feeding Cattle When Green Fodder Ends

Every year the pattern repeats. Green fodder is plentiful in the monsoon, then runs short twice a year: scarcity peaks around May and November (CEEW), and in many areas March–June and October–November are lean months. Farmers fall back on straw and concentrate, the diet becomes unbalanced, and milk falls. On small South Asian farms, cow milk has been seen to fall from 7 to 4 litres a day in fodder-scarce months.

Why the milk drop costs more than it looks. A one-litre drop in daily milk can cause real hardship for a family with two or three animals. Poor feeding also delays the next calving, raises disease and vet bills, and in bad years forces distress sales of good animals. Milk is not made in one day; it is made by feeding the animal the same good food on all 365 days.

Step 1: count what your herd eats. A milking cow or buffalo of 400–450 kg eats 18–25 kg of corn silage a day as its green-fodder base. A dry animal eats 10–15 kg, a heifer 6–10 kg and a gaushala adult 12–18 kg. Multiply by the number of animals: for example, 10 milking animals at 20 kg each eat 200 kg a day, or about 6 tonnes a month.

Step 2: count the days of the gap. Look back at last year: in which month did green fodder become scarce or too expensive, and when did it come back? Multiply the daily need by those days. As a yearly guide, a cow giving 20 litres a day needs about 10 tonnes of silage a year.

Step 3: stock before the gap. Sealed silage bales keep for 12+ months in shade, on a dry floor and away from rats. Buying before the lean months avoids the highest fodder prices and the scramble for supply. Choose a bale size your herd finishes within 3–5 days of opening.

Step 4: protect animals from heat. In summer, give unlimited clean water (a milking cow can drink 80–120 litres a day), shade and good ventilation, and feed more of the ration in the cool morning and evening. Moist, palatable silage helps keep intake up when animals eat little dry straw.

Step 5: keep the ration balanced. Silage replaces green fodder, not concentrate. Keep 4–6 kg of dry fodder for fibre, concentrate at about 1 kg per 2.5 litres of milk, 50 g of mineral mixture and 30 g of salt per adult animal per day.

What farmers who plan report. ICAR-IIMR feeding trials found a 10–20% rise in milk yield with whole-plant maize silage, and farmers who feed silage through the summer see milk hold steady instead of crashing in May and June.

Make your summer plan now. Send your herd size on WhatsApp and our team will work out the tonnage for your lean months and the delivered rate for your district, so the fodder is in your shed before the gap begins.