IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2010) 1–1

Research article
erdCattle Feeding and Management Practices of Small-holder
Farmers in Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia
MIRANDA PEN
Royal University of Agriculture, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Email: penmiranda2005@yahoo.com

DARRYL SAVAGE
University of New England, Armidale NSW, Australia

WERNER STÜR
CIAT, Vientiane, Lao PDR

SOPHAL LORN
Department of Agriculture, Kampong Cham, Cambodia

MOM SENG
Royal University of Agriculture, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Received 31 December 2009

Accepted 5 March 2010

Abstract Almost all cattle in Cambodia are produced by small-holder farmers. The cattle
are raised in an extensive way for draught power and wealth accumulation purposes. Feedavailability is a major challenge for farmers associated with poor management which
limits cattle productivity. This study reports a survey which was conducted to describe thecattle feeding and management practices of small-scale farmers in Cambodia. Sixty
farmers raising cattle in Kang Meas and Tbong Khmum districts in Kampong Cham
Province were randomly selected for an interview in 2008. On average the interviewed
farmers raised 4-5 cattle per household. Most of them had cows aged older than 3 years
which were mainly kept for breeding. More than 80% of cattle in Kang Meas werecrossbred, but about 40% of cattle in Tbong Khmum were local breed. Very few farmers
practiced weaning and none timed the date for their cows to calve. However, most of themselected a bull in their village for mating to cows. No artificial insemination was practiced
in the village. The majority of farmers vaccinated their cattle to prevent the Hemorrhagic
Septicemia (HS) while very few de-wormed their cattle. Cattle feed was mainly based on
grazing in dry and rainy seasons. During the flooding season farmers in both districts
relied on cut-and-carry native grasses and crop residues. Lastly, 60-70% of farmers soldcattle while only 10-20% bought cattle during the last year. In conclusion, cattle
management by small-holder farmers was assessed as very low in terms of management
and feeding. Farmers still raise their cattle in the traditional way with low health careintervention. Better housing of cattle with proper health care and improved feeding
systems are recommended to farmers as ways to improve cattle production.
Keywords: Cattle feeding, management, small-holder farmers, production, Cambodia

INTRODUCTION
In Cambodia, livestock accounts for 20.9% of agricultural GDP and contributes 7.6% to overall
GDP (FAO, 2005). Most livestock, including cattle, poultry and pigs are produced by small-holder
farmers. According to Ballard and Thun (2007) small-scale farms produce nearly 85% of total
livestock and meat in the country. Moreover, small-scale producers own 75% of the pig population,
85% of poultry and nearly all cattle and buffalo. As most Cambodian people are engaged in crop
production, cattle are mainly used for draught power in the household.
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Cattle are raised in an extensive way in small-holder production systems in Cambodia andthere are several breeds of cattle. Native yellow cattle are the most common breed while othermajor breeds are Haryana and Brahman (Harding et al., 2007). There is not proper genetic
improvement program as the natural breeding is widely practiced by farmers. Then the feeding
systems for cattle are characterized by the use of a wide diversity of feed resource. These are basedlargely on the use of crop residues, forages and other resources. Rice straw and other crop residues
including grasses, weeds and shrubs are the dominant feedstuffs.
Harding et al (2007) reported that there are two basic systems of cattle production in
Cambodia, but each has the same constraint. In lowland areas, the land is dominated by rice which
creates significant constraints for feeding cattle. There is more land available in upland areas;
however, most of this land is unavailable for cattle production because the government hasconceded it to private companies. There is a relationship between the labor constraint faced bysmall-holders and the availability of grazing land. The severity of feed shortage varies between
regions, but poor nutrition is a common problem. Poor nutrition also contributes to a higher
incidence of cattle diseases and parasites. The major diseases that affect cattle and buffalo in
Cambodia are HS, Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and blackleg (MAFF, 2006). Other major
health problems experienced are parasites, with liver fluke being the major internal parasite (Sounet al., 2006) and ticks and flies the major external parasites. Animal health is recognized to be thesource of production losses such as low weight gain, draught performance, fertility and lactation(Copeman and Copland, 2008).
Kampong Cham province accounts for 13% of cattle population of the country and has great
potential for cattle development with small-holder farmers. In 2003, the use of forage fodder banks
was introduced by CIAT through the Livelihood and Livestock Systems Project in this province.
To improve cattle production of small-holder farmers in Cambodia, the project “Improved Feeding
Systems for More Efficient Beef Cattle Production in Cambodia”, which is funded by theAustralian Center for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR), is being carried out from 2008
to 2011. The research reported in this paper is a baseline study of the above project with the aim ofdescribing the cattle feeding and management practices of small-holder farmers in Kampong Cham
Province.
METHODOLOGY
Two districts in Kampong Cham, Kang Meas and Tbong Khmum, were selected for this study as
they are the target area of the project. Geographically, these districts are different with Kang Measbeing a lowland area along the Mekong River receiving flooding every year while Tbong Khmum
is a high land area. Thmey Kor village located in Roka Koy commune in Kang Meas district waschosen as research site 1 and Chroy Ko village located in Chiro Pi commune in Tbong Khmum
district as research site 2. The stratified random sampling method was used for the sample selection
for an interview. First, a list of all households of each survey site was assembled with the help of
the chief of village, showing which households raised cattle and which households have planted
forages. Sixty farmers raising cattle (30 from each research site) were randomly selected for theinterview using a semi-structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed to understandcattle herd size and structure, husbandry practices, feed management and cattle buying and selling
practices. All data from the survey, both qualitative and quantitative data, were stored in Windows
Excel and analyzed using SPSS version 13.0.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
General characteristics of cattle production in studied areas
Large scale cattle production was not typical in the studied areas. Farmers kept a small number ofcattle as they did not have enough capital to invest more in cattle production. About 60% of
farmers in both districts raised their own cattle, but 40% also raised cattle for other rich farmers by© ISERD

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sharing the returns. Cattle production contributed about the same proportion to household income(about 20%) in both studied sites, even though the income from crop production was different.
Most farmers in the study areas kept their cattle under the house during the night, with orwithout mosquito nets. The cattle were not kept under the house during the day; they may be tiedunder a tree or kept in the surrounding field, although this provides no shade to cattle. Cattle aregrazed in the field when there are no crops. Farmers also spent a lot of time cutting and carrying
native grasses or crop residues to feed their cattle. They rated the lack of feed and disease as themost challenging factors in cattle production. The cows had low productivity because the intercalving was too long while growing cattle had low growth rate.
Cattle herd size structure
The percentage of the households raising different types of cattle and average number of cattle perhousehold are shown in Table 1. Farmers in both studied sites raised on average 4-5 cattle perhousehold. Most households (more than 80%) had cows older than 3 years, but the average numberof cows was higher (P=0.042) in Tbong Khmum (2.33) than in Kang Meas (1.57). However, bulls
were more important for farmers in Kang Meas (43%) than in Tbong Khmum (3%). The number ofbulls per household was significantly higher (P=0.000) in Kang Meas (0.97) than in Tbong Khmum(0.07). Furthermore, around a half of farmers in both sites raised young bulls and heifers in theirfarm, with more heifers than bulls. Only one third of farmers in both sites had male or female
calves in their household.
Table 1 Percentage of farmers raising different type of cattle and average number per
householdTbong Khmum
Percent
Mean
3
0.07
50
0.8
37
0.47
87
2.33
57
1.27
33
0.38
5.3

Kang Meas
Percent
Mean
43
0.97
37
0.43
13
0.17
80
1.57
43
0.7
20
0.23
4.3

Types of cattle
Bulls >3 years
Young Bulls 0.5-3 years
Male Calves 0-0.5 years
Cows >3 years
Heifer 0.5-3 years
Female Calves 0-0.5 years
Total

P-value
0.000
0.125
0.062
0.042
0.178
0.297
0.230

Breeds of cattle and production purpose
Fig. 1 shows that most farmers in Kang Meas (82%) had crossbred cattle in their farm whilevery few raised local or Haryana cattle. However, local cattle were the most common for farmers in
Tbong Khmum (45%) followed by crossbred and Haryana. No farmers in the studied area had
Brahman cattle.
100

100

82

80

80

60

45

40
20

7

11

0

90.9

86.3

67.9

60

38
17

0

32.1

40
20

0

0

0

9.1

46.3

44.6

13.7

8.9

0

0
Dra ught B re e dingKa ng M e a s
Ka ng M e a s

M a le c a ttle

Tbo ng Khm um

Fig. 2 Percentage of farmers keeping different
cattle breeds© ISERD134

S a leDra ught B re e dingS a leTbo ng Khm um
F e m a le c a ttle

Fig. 1 Percentage of purpose of cattle
production by sex of cattle

IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2010) 1–1

The purpose of cattle production by sex of cattle is illustrated in Fig. 2. The result shows thatthe majority of female cattle in both studied sites were raised for breeding purpose (up to 90%)
while very few were sold. Breeding cows refers to the cow that produce calves for keeping in thefarm or selling when farmers needed money. On the other hand, male cattle were primarily used asdraft power by farmers. More cattle in Kang Meas (68%) were draught animals than in Tbong
Khmum (44.6%). Apart from draught purposes, male cattle were also kept for sale (32.1% in Kang
Meas and 46.3% in Tbong Khmum). Finally, only 8.9% of male cattle in Tbong Khmum werebreeding cattle.
Cattle husbandry practices
The cattle husbandry practices of farmers are summarized in Table 2. There were only 17% of
farmers in Kang Meas who separated (weaned) a calf from its mother. Farmers allowed the calf tosuckle the cow until it stopped spontaneously (up to 12 months). Very few farmers timed the date
for their cow to calve as only 10% considered this important. Castrating male cattle was morecommon. More than half the farmers in Kang Meas castrated bulls while one third did so in Tbong
Khmum. Most farmers (more than 80%) chose and paid for a bull for mating their cows. Artificial
insemination was not used as this technology had not been introduced in the study areas. The bulls
chosen for mating were mostly sourced within the village as it was easy for farmers to manage cow
mating. Around 80% of farmers led their cows to a bull in the village when they observed the peakof the heat period. Besides breeding, more than 80% in both sites vaccinated the cattle and only
20% did not. The disease which was the most preventive was HS. The rate of farmers vaccinating
for FMD in Kang Meas was twice that in Tbong Khmum, 46% and 21% respectively. Black leg
was a minor preventive disease for which only 4% in both sites undertook vaccination. No farmers
had thought about Anthrax vaccination. Lastly, the rate of farmers de-worming their cattle was low- only 23.3% of the farmers in Kang Meas and 63% in Tbong Khmum.
Table 2 Cattle husbandry practice of farmers in the survey sites
Information
Weaning calves
Castrating male cattle
Timing of calving
Paying a bull for mating cows
Source of bulls for mating cows
Own bullWithin village
Within district
Outside district
Using artificial insemination
Vaccinating their cattle
Kinds of vaccination
HS
FMD
Black leg
Anthrax
De-worming their cattle

Kang Meas (%)
17
53
7
87

Tbong Khmum (%)
0
37
3
93

0
84
8
8
0
80

0
79
0
21
0
80

87.5
46
4
0
23

100
21
4
0
63

Feeding management
The cattle feeds were mainly natural grasses and rice straw. The grasses were provided by grazing
and cut-and-carrying and the rice straw was used during scarcity of natural grasses. Farmers also
used some other crop residues such as maize stems and sweet potato stems as additional feeds fortheir cattle. As shown in Fig. 3 the main source of cattle feed consumption in dry season was
grazing on the field (45% in Kang Meas and 62% in Tbong Khmum).
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11

14

80%

80

47

44

56

62
31

16

Wet
SeasonFloodingseason0%

10Kang Meas
GrazingCut and carry

Floodingseason42

Percent

52

40%
20%

34

18

Wet
Season

60%

42

42

18

20
43

Dry
season100%

DryseasonPercent of consumption

IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2010) 1–1

73

66

60
40

20

10

20
0
Kang Meas

T bong Khmum

Selling cattle

T bong Khmum
Buying cattle

Crop residue

Fig. 3 Feed consumption by different season Fig. 4 Percentage of farmers buying and selling
cattle during the last one year
There was more dependence on ‘cut and carry’ of native grasses in Kang Meas (42%compared to 18% in Tbong Khmum). In the early wet season, cattle feed was grazing (47%) and‘cut and carry’ (42%) in Kang Meas. By contrast in Tbong Khmum ‘cut and carry’ was more
important (52%) because more land was available for collecting native grasses. Farmers in bothsites depended on ‘cut and carry’ and crop residues for cattle feed in the flooding season. Morethan 80% of feed was sourced from these two kinds of feeds. The farmers in Kang Meas utilized
rice straw, maize stem and sweet potato stem for their cattle while the farmers in Tbong Khmum
also used other crop residues such as bean stem, peanut stem and rice bran. Lastly, there was more
native grass cut for cattle in Chroy Ko (56%).
Cattle buying and selling
The percentage of cattle sold and bought by the farmers in the studied areas during the last 12
months is shown in Fig. 4. Sixty to seventy percent of farmers sold their cattle while only 10-20%of them bought 1 or 2 cattle during the last year. Cattle selling and buying occurred mostcommonly between farmers with female cattle. Female cattle were bought for cow-calf production.
However, sometimes small traders or market sellers came to the village to buy cattle. These tradersmostly bought male cattle for slaughter and sale in the local market or for transport to otherprovinces and neighboring countries. The money from selling cattle was not used to buy morecattle, but farmers used the funds for different purpose.
DISCUSSION
In small-holder cattle production systems, cows were most important for farmers because they wereused for breeding to produce calves. However, bulls were used for draught purposes, especially inthe areas along the Mekong River (Kang Meas). In the last 10 years, it was reported that cattle weremainly kept as draught animals rather than for meat production as they were concentrated in therice growing areas (Maclean, 1998). Cattle were also raised for selling indicating that farmers were
responding to market demands. Cattle along the Mekong River were almost all crossbred, however,more local breed cattle were found in the upland area (Tbong Khmum). Harding et al (2007) foundthat cattle were concentrated along the Mekong because more forage was available.
Cattle husbandry intervention of farmers was low in terms of health and disease control.
Windsor (2008) reported that farmers had little knowledge of husbandry and did not have funds toimprove husbandry. The breeding program was absent in small-holder cattle production systems.
Breeding was done by selecting a bull within the village to mate cows. Inbreeding could be a
problem if no records were kept of breeding and management. Vaccinations in the studied sites
were only available for some diseases such as HS and FMD. Some farmers did not have access tovaccines and some were not concerned. Since cattle were generally grazed in the fields for farmers© ISERD

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were not able to provide best cattle management practices. Management of cattle in pens is a betterway to control the condition and health of cattle and to provide necessary treatments. Vaccination
to prevent some common diseases must be provided to cattle to minimize the economic losses.
Cattle feeds were mainly natural grasses and rice straw. The grasses were provided by grazing
and cut-and-carrying, which required high labor input. Windsor (2008) reported that more than 4hours were required for those activities. Because of feed scarcity, especially during the flooding
and dry seasons, farmers fed rice straw to their cattle which had very low nutritive quality. There
are some options for farmers to improve the feeding system of their cattle. First, supplementing
traditional feed resources with planted forages is a simple solution (Stür and Horne, 2001). Forages
are grasses and legumes that can be used for feeding animals and for better management of theenvironment (Stür and Horne, 1999). Planting forage can help farmers to solve problems such as
general feed shortages, dry season feed shortages, and freeing up labor for feeding animals. Second,
to increase the quality of crop residues such as rice straw, farmers can provide small amounts ofprotein and mineral supplementation such as sugar, salt, urea, oil cakes, fish meals and rice byproduct. Another option to improve the quality of available feed resources, such as maize stems,
sweet potato stems and sugar cane stems, is to make them into silage for cattle feed. Even thoughthese options require extra inputs, farmers can choose the best option for them based on to theirresources.
Small-holder farmers do not think about the time of calving and weaning. According to Petit etal. (1992), cows should be managed to calve before the grass growing season and calves weaned at
the end of the season. During this season, cows eat more than the requirement for maintenance andlactation and use the extra nutrient to recover their body weight and fat reserves. Then the cycle ofoestrus and ovulation is stimulated.
Lack of feed is a serious problem for cattle productivity which limits the ability to expand
cattle numbers (Harding et al., 2007). Farmers had less opportunity to participate in cattle markets.
Selling and buying of small-holder cattle mostly occurred between farmers. Others such as local
traders, market sellers and slaughterhouses sometimes come to the village to purchase cattle.
Ramsay and Maclean (1998) found that cattle were less frequently brought to town to sell directly
to slaughterhouses or to consumers.
There are two options for small-holder farmers to improve the cattle production in order toincrease their income. The first option is to fatten cattle for 2-4 months before sale to increase themeat yield and enable farmers to receive a higher sale price. Fattening refers to keeping cattle inpens and feeding them good quality forages and water. It is easy for farmers to check the conditionand health of animals in the pens and provide treatments including de-worming and vaccinations(Stür and Varney, 2007). The second option is to improve cow-calf production which is the mostimportant production cycle in small-holder system. More efficient cow-calf production means thatcows can produce as many calves as possible by reducing the inter-calving period. Underfeeding
during lactation may reduce the milk yield of the cow and the growth rate of its calf (Hodgson et al.,1980), especially when the cows are already thin at calving. So good quality feeds must be
provided to cows during lactation. Weaning of calves at age of 40-70 days will help cows to returnto oestrus and conceive during the breeding season (Laster et al., 1973). However, the weaning
time is depended upon the condition of calf and the good quality and adequate feed should be
provided to the weaned calf.
CONCLUSION
The cattle production of small-holder farmers was assessed as very low in terms of management
and feeding. Farmers raised their cattle in the traditional way with low health care intervention.
Moreover, there was no breeding program to manage the genetic improvement in small-holder
cattle production systems. Cattle feeds were mainly based on natural grasses and rice straw.
Providing locally available feeds was a major challenge for farmers which required high labor input,
especially during the dry and flooding seasons. Lack of feed was a critical factor limiting the abilityof farmers to expand cattle numbers. As a result, farmers had less opportunity to participate in© ISERD

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cattle markets. Better housing of cattle with proper health care and improved feeding system isrecommended to improve cattle production. Planting forages including grasses and legumes is a
simple solution for farmers to respond to the lack of feed. Keeping cattle in pens for fattening
before sale and improving cow-calf production can help improve management of cattle in order toincrease income and expand the number of cattle to respond more to market demand
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The financial support of ACIAR for this research is gratefully acknowledged. The authors are gratefulto Dr Sar Chetra, Dr Tim Purcell, Dr Troung Tan Kanh and Dr Archut Kubota for their contribution to
our research.

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