Requirements for protein meals for ruminant meat production in developing countries

World meat and milk supplies must be increased considerably in the next 20-50 years if the predicted demand is to be satisfied. Development of poultry and pig industries are targeted as being the most likely to develop at a rate commensurate with the demand for meat. Developments of alcohol industries to provide oxygenate for inclusion in gasoline may take a large proportion of what was previously feed grain that is a requirement for industrial pig and poultry production. The demand for grain for alcohol may impinge on the availability of feed grain and may result in a short fall for these developments to occur. This suggests that emphasis should be directed to ruminant production including cattle, sheep and goats that are capable of producing on feeds high in complex carbohydrates not usable in quantity by the monogastric meat producers. A review of the literature, shows that with appropriate supplementation of the abundant crop residues and other fibrous materials that are fed to ruminants these can be used highly efficiently attaining reasonable production levels. Crop residues and wasteland or mature tropical grasses are mostly deficient in nutrients that are critical for the digestion of fibrous carbohydrates and efficient synthesis into products. Supplying these nutrients leads to significant improvement in productivity and when these supplementation strategies are applied together with management to attain high digestibility of the forage, high levels of production can be achieved relative to animals fed on for instance high quality temperate pastures. Supplementation involves providing minerals and urea to satisfy requirements for efficient digestion by microbes in the rumen and augmenting the protein supply to the animal through feeding an escape protein meal. Protein meals appear to have differing roles: when fed at low increments the response in growth of cattle is apparently 4 fold greater than to similar increments of protein supplements above a critical level. In dairy animals on forage based diets the response to supplements of protein meals depends on the genetic potential of a cow for milk yield. Cows on mature forage based diets and with high genetic merit will mobilise body reserves to produce milk and the benefits of increasing protein intake is often more apparent in decreasing live weight loss than a large stimulus in daily milk production. The prevention of live weight loss has large benefits in terms of reduced inter-calving interval and persistency of lactation. As daily live weight gain increases with increasing levels of supplementation, the feed requirements to produce a fattened animal can be reduced to 20% of the feed required by a similar animal without supplements to fatten to the same weight. The potential for ruminant production to be increased from poor quality forages is of the order of 5-10 fold without any increase in the demand for forage. To attain such increase in production there are associated needs. These include the need to supplement to increase fertility of the potential breeding herd and eliminate waste [death of animals], and to provide incentives for farmers to take up recommended strategies. The latter requires the establishment of infrastructure for slaughter, distribution and marketing of meat at equitable prices