Feeds and forage for cattle in the Philippines

Feed is where most of your money goes in cattle raising, and it is also where you can save the most. The good news: cattle are built to live on grass and farm leftovers that people cannot eat. With good planning, a Filipino farmer can feed cattle well using forage grown on the farm, crop residues from the neighborhood, and only a small amount of bought feed.

How much does a cow eat?

As a rough guide, DA material cited by Edge Davao says cattle eat about 3% of their body weight in air-dry feed per day. For a 250 kg animal, that is around 7.5 kg of dry feed. Fresh grass is mostly water, so the actual weight of fresh forage you cut will be several times more. Watch your animals: if the trough is always empty early and they look hungry, give more; if a lot is left over and wasted, give less.

Grasses: the foundation

Grass should make up most of the diet. Common grasses for cut-and-carry or grazing in the Philippines include:

Napier (Pennisetum purpureum): tall, high-yielding, good for cut-and-carry. According to a Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) article, ordinary napier is usually harvested at around 45 to 55 days of regrowth.
Pakchong 1 (“Super Napier”): an improved napier variety from Thailand. In the same PCC article, a Thai expert claimed higher yields and about 16 to 18% crude protein, harvested about every 45 to 48 days. Treat these as the developer’s claims; results on your farm will depend on soil, fertilizer and rain.
Guinea grass (Megathyrsus maximus): leafy and well liked by cattle, good for pasture or cutting.

Cut grass young and leafy, chop it so less is wasted, and plant enough area so you do not run short in the dry season.

Legumes: the protein boost

Legume trees and shrubs give protein that grass alone often lacks. Two of the most common in Filipino farms:

Ipil-ipil (Leucaena leucocephala)

A great protein source and the base of the traditional Batangas supak feeding. But it contains mimosine, which can be toxic when fed in large amounts for a long time. Feedipedia (an FAO-supported feed database) notes that leucaena can harm cattle when it is more than about 30% of the diet over long periods. For most farmers, keeping ipil-ipil as a supplement, not the main feed, is the safer path. Watch for hair loss, drooling or poor appetite and call your vet if you see them.

Kakawate or madre de cacao (Gliricidia sepium)

Often planted as a living fence. Feedipedia describes it as best used as a protein supplement for cattle on grass, straw or silage diets, not as the sole feed. Studies cited there used it at around 15 to 45% of the diet in different situations, with no single safe limit given. Tips from the same source:

Animals not used to kakawate may refuse it at first; introduce it gradually.
Wilting the leaves for about a day can make them more acceptable.
Avoid sudden large amounts of very young, lush leaves.

Crop residues: cheap, but low in nutrients

Rice straw (dayami): plentiful after harvest but low in protein and hard to digest. It works best when combined with green forage, legumes or a supplement. Philippine studies have tested treating straw with urea or spraying it with urea-molasses to improve it, but get training before doing this because of urea’s dangers (see below).
Corn stover: the stalks and leaves left after harvesting corn. Like straw, it is low in quality on its own. In a Tarlac trial, cattle fed corn stover alone gained only about 85 to 130 grams a day.
Sugarcane tops (pang-ibabaw ng tubo): widely used in sugar areas. A UPLB study in Negros Occidental found farm diets were about three-fourths roughage, mostly cane tops with fresh ipil-ipil, plus about one-fourth concentrate.
Sweet potato vines (talbos ng kamote): in a PCARRD-supported project in Paniqui, Tarlac, sweet potato vines and leaves were the main feed in an improved fattening system that raised daily gains well above what farmers saw before.

Silage: storing feed for the dry season

Silage is chopped green forage, often corn, packed tightly without air so it ferments and keeps for months. It helps you feed well when grass is scarce.

Based on PCC and PCAARRD material on corn silage:

Forage corn is commonly harvested at around 75 to 80 days, when the kernel is about two-thirds milk line.
Chop finely, pack tightly into plastic sacks, silo bags or pits, squeeze out air and seal well. Air left inside causes mold.
Silage is usually ready after about 3 weeks of fermentation.
Good silage is yellowish green and has a sweet, pleasant sour smell. Moldy, rotten-smelling silage should not be fed.

Introduce silage gradually, and once a bag is opened, use it up quickly before it spoils.

Molasses and urea-molasses mineral blocks (UMMB)

Molasses (pulot from sugarcane) is a sweet energy source. It improves the taste of dry feeds like straw and adds energy.

Urea-molasses mineral blocks are hard licks made with molasses, urea, minerals and a binder. Urea gives rumen microbes nitrogen to build protein, which helps animals on poor roughage.

Urea safety: read this

Urea can kill cattle if they take in too much at once. FAO guidance says:

Give blocks only to ruminants (cattle, carabao, goats, sheep). Never to pigs or horses.
Use them as a supplement, not the main feed. Animals must have enough roughage in the rumen.
Do not give blocks to very thin, hungry animals with empty stomachs.
Introduce gradually over 1 to 2 weeks, starting with only 2 to 4 hours of access a day.
Blocks must be hard. Soft or wet blocks let animals eat too much. Keep them out of the rain.
Expected intake for cattle is roughly 400 to 800 grams of block per day.
Never leave urea fertilizer or urea dissolved in water where animals can reach it. Many poisoning cases came from thirsty animals drinking urea solutions.

Signs of poisoning include difficult breathing, trembling, heavy drooling, staggering and bloating, sometimes within about 20 minutes. Call a veterinarian immediately. FAO describes giving diluted vinegar by mouth as a first aid treatment, but this should be done under a vet’s guidance.

If you are not sure, buy ready-made blocks from a trusted supplier and follow the label.

Concentrates

Concentrates are feeds packed with energy or protein: rice bran (darak), copra meal, corn, commercial cattle feeds and similar. They speed up gains but cost more.

Start small, increase slowly over a couple of weeks, and keep concentrates as an addition to forage, not a replacement. Compare their extra cost with the extra weight you get.

Water, salt and minerals

Give clean drinking water at all times. Cattle eat less and grow slower when water is short.
Provide salt and a mineral mix or mineral block, especially if animals eat mostly straw or grass from poor soil.
Clean troughs regularly.

A simple example ration

The table below is only an example to show how feeds can fit together for a feeder animal of around 250 kg in a backyard setup. It is not a formula. Your amounts should depend on your animal’s weight, the feeds you have, and advice from your agriculture office or a nutritionist.

Feed	Example amount per day	Role
Fresh chopped napier or guinea grass	Most of the diet, offered freely	Main roughage
Fresh ipil-ipil or wilted kakawate leaves	A few kilos, kept as a minority of the diet	Protein
Rice straw or corn stover	As extra roughage when grass is short	Bulk
Rice bran or other concentrate	Small amount, increased slowly	Energy for faster gain
Molasses	A little, mixed into dry feeds	Taste and energy
Salt and minerals	Free access via mineral block	Health
Clean water	Always available	Essential

Weigh your animals regularly and adjust.

Key takeaways

Grass and legumes from your own farm should be the base of the diet; buy concentrates to support, not replace, forage.
Keep ipil-ipil as a supplement; Feedipedia notes problems above about 30% of the diet over long periods. Introduce kakawate gradually and wilt it.
Use silage and crop residues to get through the dry season, and add legumes or supplements to improve poor roughage.
Urea can kill cattle. Use hard blocks, introduce slowly, never give to starved animals and never leave urea or urea water within reach.
Always provide clean water, salt and minerals, and ask your Municipal Agriculture Office or veterinarian for a ration that fits your farm.

This guide is general information. Prices, rules and programs change, and every farm is different. Check with your Municipal Agriculture Office or a licensed veterinarian before making big decisions.

Sources

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