Using an Alternative Feed to Bring Stability in the Face of Drought and Rising Costs

Since 1988, SARE has funded over 10,000 farmer-focused grants to improve the sustainability of U.S. agriculture. In the last five years alone, SARE grantees report that thousands of farmers and ranchers have participated in research funded by Southern SARE.

This producer leadership means every SARE grant focuses on innovations that help farmers and ranchers better manage production and market volatility while improving the resilience of American agriculture as a whole.

One of those farmers, Diana Padilla, produces vegetables and lamb in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, where persistent drought and inflationary pressures have made it challenging to find cost-effective supplemental livestock feed. Hoping to stabilize her bottom line, Padilla secured a Producer Grant from Southern SARE to investigate whether farm-grown moringa oleifera, a rapidly growing, drought resistant tree native to India, could serve as a practical and sustainable feed substitute.

Padilla compared the cost of bringing lambs to market on a diet of pasture and alfalfa pellets with a diet of pasture supplemented with a range of alfalfa/moringa replacement rates. An examination of the costs of production revealed that the moringa supplements:

• Required additional labor to produce and pelletize
• Resulted in a comparable weight gain for lambs
• Showed a slight cost advantage over the alfalfa pellets