Year: 2007
Type: article
Abstract: IntroductionThailand has approximately 350,000 head of dairy cattle, 5,550,185 head of beef cattle and 1,624,919 head of buffaloes, which results in a large demand for good-quality pasture.This livestock production is mainly operated under smallholders who are largely dependent on forages for the feed supply.With the assistance of government agencies such as the Department of Livestock and Develop-ment (DLD), and the Dairy Promotion and Organization (DPO) of Thailand, greater number of farmers are now involved in the cultivation of improved forages, especially for those who are raising dairy cattle as reflected in the increased areas of improved pasture from 191,290 ha in 2002 to 220,274 ha in 2005.However, the ratios of pasture area to the number of beef, dairy cattle and buffaloes are still low, which are only 0.07, 0.12 and 0.08 ha head, respectively.According to DLD (2005), the central region has the highest ruminant animal number farm, followed by the northeast and northern regions while the southern region is the lowest (Table 1).These data suggest that most Thai farmers can be classified as small farm holders.As the grassland farming is mainly found on those farms that are raising dairy cattle, the average area for such farming is only 0.4-4.8ha farm, while the size of farm is varied from place to place.This indicates that there is limited land for pasture production and production of forages and pasture for dairy farming is low, varying between 6.3-10.9t ha year.
Authors: Ishii, Yasuyuki, Tudsri, Sayan
Institution: University of Miyazaki
Language: English
Subfield: Agronomy and Crop Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDGs: Zero hunger, No poverty
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7208324694