Halophytic and Salt-Tolerant Feedstuffs : Impacts on Nutrition, Physiology and Reproduction of Livestock

The potential of halophytes as feedstuffs for livestock has been recognized for decades and their incorporation into has been advocated as a way to increase intake and mitigate the anti-nutritional compounds that reduce palatability and food value. This book details the interactions between halophytic feedstuffs and both ruminant and non-ruminant livestock. It summarizes years of experience from work in Egypt, Australia, the US, Mexico, Pakistan and the Middle East and sheds light on the problems and prospects for increasing the utilization of halophytes as animal feed and for rehabilitation of saline lands throughout the world.

Naturally occurring salt tolerant and halophytic plants (trees, shrubs, grasses, and forbs) have always been utilized by livestock as a supplement or drought reserve. Salt tolerant forage and fodder crops are now being planted over wide areas. Increasingly, large-scale production of fodder on formerly abandoned irrigated cropland has allowed salt tolerant and halophytic feedstuffs to be mainstreamed into the supply chain for feedlots. Feeding salty feeds to livestock has been evaluated in many countries with good outcomes especially as a way to improve livestock nutrition and productivity. Better ways have been devised to use these potentially valuable feed resources. These feedstuffs are best fed in mixed rations. Substituting conventional fodder with up to 30 percent of the diets comprising halophytic feedstuffs have proved most successful for ruminant livestock but special formulations have been devised for poultry and rabbits. There are big savings on the import of costly feedstuffs and benefits to livelihoods of those dependent on scattered, sparse and unreliable forage/fodder in the world’s drylands that cover about 40 percent of the world’s land surface.

This book is written by leading authorities from many different countries. It reviews past and current work on the animal-oriented aspects of the utilization of feedstuffs derived from salt tolerant and halophytic plants. It brings to the reader (scientist, researcher, academics and their students, policy makers, and livestock operators) an up-to-date analysis of the important issues related to salt-rich feedstuffs (nutrition, productivity, and reproduction).