Rada Partners With US Universities to Improve Small Ruminant Nutrition

The Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) is partnering with United States (US)-based universities to improve small ruminant nutrition.

Speaking with JIS News recently, Senior Livestock Specialist with RADA, Maxine Brown, said that providing quality feed for small livestock, such as goats, is critical to the development of the industry.

“We’ve reached out to international partners because we know sometimes locally the funds are not available. We also realised, too, that in terms of even expertise and knowledge about small ruminant production there are some deficiencies, and so we try to find external persons that have the knowledge and experience to also work along with us,” she noted.

As such, she said that the entity has partnered with Langston University in Oklahoma and Virginia State University on a joint project, which also involves the College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE).

Under the project, which targets 10 farmers across the island, forages are analysed to support proper feed formulation.

“The initiative is known as the Targeted Research and Extension for Small Ruminants’ Nutrition Project. Langston University developed what they call a Langston Interactive Nutrient Calculator. This is software that can help you to formulate feed to help farmers identify the nutritional content or nutritional breakdown of the feed they are giving the animals,” Ms. Brown informed.

She told JIS News that the intention is to identify the forages that farmers use and take samples, which are sent overseas for nutritional analyses.

“Then, we enter that in the calculator for it to formulate feed for the farmer. This will allow him to identify if he is wasting money on the feed in the form of ingredients he didn’t need to use or if there are other ingredients that he could have used because, although he’s mixing all these things together, the animal is still not getting the required nutrients,” Ms. Brown explained.

The partnership with Langston University, which began in 2019, also includes capacity-building to RADA extension staff and farmers.