3.1 Community Background: Sabana Grande · Web viewpage 18-20 Project Reflection ... page 20-21 References ... page 21-22 Appendices ... compared to 30 liters of milk per cow per day

Tracie DangElsie FullertonJin Kyung-Kim

Greta Soos3/15/15

Silage Production to Alleviate Malnutrition in Cows in Nicaragua

Tracie Dang

Elspeth Fullerton

Jin Kyung-Kim

Greta Soos

3/15/15

D-Lab Winter 2015

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Table of Contents

Meet the Team…………………………………………………………………………page 3

Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………...page 4

Final Problem Definition……………………………………………………………...page 4-5

Background…………………………………………………………………………....page 5-7

Methodology…………………………………………………………………………...page 8-12

Results………………………………………………………………………………….page 12-17

Recommandations……………………………………………………………………..page 18-20

Project Reflection……………………………………………………………………...page 20-21

References……………………………………………………………………………...page 21-22

Appendices……………………………………………………………………………..page 22-23

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Meet the Team!

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Elspeth Fullerton

I am a fourth year undergraduate student majoring in Genetics and Genomics and minoring in English.

Jin Kyung-Kim

I am a Masters student in Biological Systems Engineering studying the microbial degradation of agriculture residues for biofuel production. I graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine with a degree in Physics and a minor in music.

Tracie Dang

I am a fourth year undergraduate student majoring in Animal Biology and minoring in Global Disease Biology.

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1. Executive SummaryEach year those residing in the community of Sabana Grande, Nicaragua, face a problem

during the dry season. From January to June, when the pasture dries up, community members are left with no cheap, accessible means of nourishing their cattle (Climate 1). When the cattle begin to starve they lose the ability to reproduce and stop producing milk—rendering them useless and burdensome to their owners. Though most community members regard dairy furnishings as supplemental to their core diet, many could do with the extra nourishment and alleviation of the stress that is associated with food insecurity (Lopez, 2015). Further, year-round access to dairy products could yield not only better nourished citizens but could also provide economic opportunities for those looking to fill what may be a newly available market niche. UC Davis veterinary students who traveled to Sabana Grande in the summer of 2014 identified silage as a good solution to the problem of malnourished cows (Sorenson, 2014). Silage harnesses the energy from crop residues that are cheap and might otherwise be discounted as a means of furthering nutrition. The silage process essentially uses cattle as machines via which the inaccessible energy found in Sabana Grande’s sorghum-like crop residues is converted into nutrients found within dairy products, making those calories available to people.

In conjunction with our client, Hilario Lopez, the D-lab Silage Team has identified three means of addressing the malnutrition cattle problem. The first goal is to develop a silage chopper that can reduce the workload associated with reducing crop parts into fine pieces (chopping by hand with a machete is prohibitively time consuming—especially as many community members regard time as their most precious commodity). Referring to Appendix 2 shows an image of Hilario chopping crop residue by hand with a machete in order to make silage. Community education services will also be developed regarding silage and cattle nutrition upon development and implementation of the silage chopper. The D-lab Silage Team is further exploring the possibility of implementing holistic management and planned grazing strategies into the community as part of a long-term and inter-disciplinary solution to the skinny cow problem. The group has secured grant funding and will be traveling to Sabana Grande during the summer of 2015.

2. Final Problem Definition

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Greta Soos

I am a third year undergraduate student majoring in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning.

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Sabana Grande is a small farming community in Nicaragua where cow nutrition is insufficient primarily due to food shortages caused by lack of pasture and grass growth during the dry season. In order to alleviate malnutrition among their cattle community member Hilario Lopez is looking to silage production, a practice which makes use of dry grasses and forage, to nourish Sabana Grande’s cows during these yearly periods of famine. Unfortunately, there is currently no efficient way for community members to chop forage, a key component of the silage production process. Farmers chop forage by hand, a practice which is labor intensive and time inefficient to the degree that community members allow their cattle to starve instead. Our D-lab Silage Team has the goal of either identifying or producing an effective chopper for the community to use in making silage. The preferred chopper design is one that is cost efficient, economically viable, safe to use, easy to use, and environmentally friendly. The Silage Team has spent 10 weeks identifying options that best fit these criteria and exploring solutions to other limitations in the production of silage in Sabana Grande, Nicaragua.

3. Background

3.1 Community Background: Sabana GrandeSabana Grande is a community in the Madrid Province of Nicaragua with a reported

population of 2,000 humans and 60 cows (Lopez 2015). This rural region lies among the mountains of Totogalpa, only 20 miles from the border of Honduras. Since 1999 this small agricultural community has harbored an NGO, Grupo Fenix, which works with land-mine survivors affected during the country’s civil war between the Sandinistas and the Contras (Guevara-Stone 2015). Most families do not have an income, although there is a thriving solar business. Totogalpa is Nicaragua’s second poorest region. The typical citizen of Sabana Grande features a fourth-grade education (Guevara-Stone).

An assessment of available community resources is featured in our “Results” table.

3.2 State of Cows in Sabana GrandeLivestock keeping practices by rural, small scale farmers are far less productive than

those of industrialized farmers, but livestock in lower income communities have the capacity to alleviate poverty and provide better health and nutrition to the communities it serves (Randolph, 2007). Members of the community of Sabana Grande received cows through the Bono Productivo Almentario (BPA) which focuses on strengthening food security and improving family nutrition through the distribution of livestock (Reyes, 2014).

Dairy supplements a family’s diet providing needed proteins and fats to limited diets, and excess milk can be sold to supplement family income. However, the animal’s health may suffer without adequate access to feed, caused by cost of feed and other resource constraints. The dairy cows in the Sabana Grande (SG) community of Nicaragua are an example of malnourished animals. There are about 20 cow owners in the community, each with 2-3 pasture-raised cows. During the dry season, which is November to April, the cows have limited access to pasture lands and food. These cows are mainly kept for dairy production to supplement the families’ diet, but unhealthy cows have many downstream effects on the animal and family. Not only does

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the cow not produce milk, but also the cow may be more susceptible to illness, which will add additional financial burdens to the family. While cow owners do not fully rely on the milk production, the added nutritive benefit of the milk improves the health of the family and therefore the overall community. Today, cattle owners in SG have become accustomed to reduced or halted milk production during the winter months.

In 2012, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine developed a One Health project in Sabana Grande, which investigated the overall health of the community by conducting a survey to understand the needs of the humans, animals, and environment. The students identified the importance of improving animal and human health and began conducting educational workshops to promote the connection between livestock health the overall community welfare (Sorenson, 2014). During their time in Nicaragua they learned that cattle do not receive proper nutrition during the dry season. Besides their physically skinny appearance, cattle are not reproductively healthy and have lower milk production during the dry season. The students’ survey responses ranged from 50%-100% reduction in milk production from wet to dry season. Typical cows produce milk for about 10 months after they have calved, however this is not always the case in SG. In SG the cows are bred once they are a few years old and then impregnated by a rented or borrowed bull every one to two years to maintain milk production (Lopez, 2015). Cows in SG produce about 3.9-3.8 liters of milk per cow per day (Sorenson 2014) compared to 30 liters of milk per cow per day produced by an average industrially raised American cow (Dairy Moos). Cows that are not properly fed will produce less milk, and studies have shown that pasture raised cows in the United States produce 11.1% less milk than cows that are confined (White 2002). Though the milk production may be lower, the quality of the milk is higher as cows are naturally pasture grazing animals. Most cows in the US are fed a carefully engineered diet of grain, roughage, silage and vitamins for maximum milk yield. For high milk yield, cows must eat large amounts of feed, around 2-4% of their body weight (Wheeler, 2003). Most dairy cows are fed grain with forage and given protein supplements, but the cows in the SG community are pasture-raised and underfed for many months of the year. They also do not receive many dietary supplements to amend their pasture diets. The veterinary students from UC Davis identified silage as a possible resource that can improve the cattle health during the dry season.

3.3 Holistic Resource ManagementHolistic resource management is a practice, championed by Allan Savory, which involves

bunching and moving cattle among different areas of pastureland, taking into account social, environmental, and economic phenomena (TED Talk). It has four cornerstones:

1. Succession of plants, animals, and soils together as one entity2. Water cycle in the ecosystem3. Mineral cycle in the ecosystem4. Energy flow through the ecosystem

The key to management, according to Savory, is manipulation (via control and understanding) of the soil surface (Savory 156).

Savory describes holistic resource management as a “goal oriented” practice that is ideally suited to brittle environments. A brittle environment is one that experiences prolonged

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periods of the year during which environmental or climate conditions deter plant growth. Sabana Grande, with its six-month dry season, precisely fits this definition (Savory 155-6).

In Sabana Grande holistic resource management would, ideally, serve to reduce the community’s dependence on silage and other food matter outside of pasture-feeding the cattle. Holistic management is a multi-faceted idea—one that is simultaneously simple in theory and complex in its application. It is simple in that it aims to use livestock in order to “mimic nature” (TED Talk). But natural processes, especially within the context of complex network interactions, are a difficult entity to mimic.

There are dangers associated with committing to a holistic management plan with “enthusiasm that is unmatched by knowledge” (Savory 155). For instance, Savory warns against settling for “short duration grazing.” Such a practice may seem like a simplified version of holistic land management, but can lead, instead, to disastrous results. “No matter how short the grazing periods, overgrazing will result unless the grazing periods are what [Savory] calls “time-controlled” which means that grazing periods relate to the daily growth rate of the plants in the growing season” (158). Further considerations include the time that the animals are slotted to return back to the land and the availability of pastoral grasses to meet the requirements of the cattle.

As discussed in our “Community Background” section cattle owners in Sabana Grande may range from owning a solitary cow to individually owning up to 10 head. Community members, besides varying in the number of cows they own, also have access to differing amounts of pastoral land from which to nourish these cattle. A cornerstone of holistic management is bunching livestock together and then moving them among the available pastoral land in a planned manner. For holistic management to work well in Sabana Grande it would require the community to be extremely cooperative with one another. Given that each community member is bringing a proportionally different number of cattle (which would directly correlate to the output in terms of amount of pasture food resources consumed) and that different community members are providing different inputs (in terms of the amount of land contributed to the cause) there is a certain amount of social understanding and caution that needs to be exercised in such a situation.

Furthermore, as conceded by Savory, for holistic management to be done properly one needs to be both invested in its study and willing to commit to the process. Such an undertaking would likely require somebody to rigorously oversee the planning and operation of such an endeavor. Hilario, as the farm leader in Sabana Grande and somebody who is already invested in this project, may make a good candidate.

3.4 Four Lenses Analysis (Overview of Project)

Economic Technology

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• Affordability of chopper• Cost of unit and/or materials• Cost of fuel (for diesel powered

chopper)

• Energy inputs from each chopper design

• Chopping mechanism (ease of use or not)

• Chopped quality (chop silage in ideal lengths or not)

• Reliability (if the chopper last over time with few repairs)

Culture Environment

• Community buy-in of our project goals• Usability of chopper from community• Educational outreach about silage

benefits and silage production

• Sustainability• Environmental impact• Holistic land management

4. Methodology4.1 Stakeholders and Mentors

The D-lab Silage Team relied on an extensive network of mentors and collaborators to provide the group with knowledge, ideas, and support. To understand the community needs of those living in Sabana Grande the team relied heavily upon these individuals to provide us with information regarding the different facets of our project. The primary means of garnering information regarding Sabana Grande was via client Hilario Lopez, a farm leader in the community who is significantly invested in this project and agreed to weekly interviews via Skype.

We have identified the stakeholders in this project to be the following:

Stakeholders

Small farm cattle owners in Sabana Grande

The small farm cattle owners would be highly involved since the dry season affects their cattles’ health and nutrition, which therefore affects their milk production which the owners depend on.

Small farmers’ cattle The dry season directly affects the cattles’ health especially if there is not enough pasture for the cattle to graze on.

Hilario Lopez, Vet Promoter and Farm Leader

Our main client who is an active community leader to help us implement a chopper and educational workshops.

Food and Dairy Inefficient milk production from cattle due to malnutrition during the

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Markets dry seasons can lead to unsuccessful market sales of milk and cheese.

4.2 Cost Assumptions

4.2.1 FeedClient Hilario stated that one cow can eat about 45 kg of fresh grass each day. Taiwan

grass is typically 20% dry matter which amounts to 9kg dry matter intake per day. The main crop they ensile is sorghum at a 65% moisture content (DM). There are biomass losses during the ensiling process as the microbial activity will degrade some of the residue as it ferments. This loss ranges from 6%-20% depending on silage conditions. The team is assuming about 10% losses which converts to 15.4 kg of residue results in 1 day of cattle feed. For the driest time of the year, from February to April we can assume that 1,386 kg of residue must be chopped to feed one cow.

4.2.2 Feed Calculations (per Cow for 3 months)Grass:mass of grass x moisture content of grass = dry matter

ex.DMI fresh grass: 45 kg x 0.20 kg dry matter/ total = 9 kg dmi /day

Ensiled sorghum:mass of dry matter (kg) / (percent moisture content of sorghum x percent dry matter after ensilage)

ex.Sorghum needed for 1 day of feed:9kg / (0.65 moisture content x 0.90 dry matter after fermentation) =15.4 kg sorghum feed/day

Total feed needed for 3 months:15.4kg x 90 days= 1386 kgs

Purchased animal feed:assuming animal feed is similar in moisture content to grassdaily grass consumption (kg/day)x cost of feed ($/kg)= $ /day

ex. 45 kg/day x $0.80/kg= $36/day

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Total hours to feed 1 cow during 3 months of dry season:total feed needed for 3 months (kg) / throughput (kg/hr) = number of hours

Total recurring cost of feeding 1 cow during 3 months of dry season:(cost of feedstock ($/kg) x total feed needed for 3 months) + (cost of diesel ($/liter) x diesel used (liters)= recurring cost of feed ($)

Total cost of feeding animals in first year of dry season:total recurring cost + investment cost = total cost of feeding animal in first year

4.2.3 Machines Cost AnalysisThere are several common ideas as to what machinery would work best as a forage

chopper. The most important component of any chopper is the mechanism used to chop the silage, the blade. This blade can be moved and powered both manually or by diesel or electric power. The qualifications for a best fit chopper for the community would ultimately be solar powered, safe to use, fast, and efficient. These parameters may be unlikely to meet, so research was conducted on all machine possibilities. Possible choppers include a hand powered chopper, a pedal powered flywheel design, a solar powered chopper, a repurposed lawnmower, and a diesel chopper. There are several ways to combine power supply to some of these choppers. For instance, a pedal powered flywheel design could also be converted into a diesel powered flywheel design, or a repurposed lawnmower could be powered by diesel or electricity.

Machine Assumptions

diesel chopper • $600-1200

solar powered chopper

• Client Hilario Lopez stated that solar units are approximately $600• An electric chopper on alibaba.com costs about $200

pedal powered • bike frame is available and will cost ~$60• cutter blade and shaft are available and cost ~$80• additional materials cost ~$60• total cost ~$200

repurposed lawnmower

• lawnmower is not available in Sabana Grande, but it can be transported there

• Uses diesel at rate similar to chopper• cuts residue at have the rate of diesel chopper at 200kg/hr• cost ~$100

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hand powered chopper

• 8 metal flat blades (machetes) will cost ~$24• Wooden boards available and cost ~$8• Additional materials cost ~$33• Total cost ~$65

4.3 Community AnalysisWe further understood the community’s food and material resources, lifestyle, cattle and

silage knowledge by researching Sabana Grande’s geographical, economical and social aspects through scientific articles and by facilitating weekly interviews with Hilario. We specifically analyzed the primary stakeholder who is being affected in the community and critically asked questions towards ideal solutions that we may realistically implement for the community.

First off, we determined our number one stakeholder is the cattle of small farmers in Sabana Grande whose health is affected during the dry season due to the scarcity of pasture and grasses for the cattle to graze on. From there, we asked ourselves the “big picture” questions like: what other feed alternatives are available for the cattle? How does this affect the small farm cattle owners’ lifestyle economically and socially? What are the small farmers current actions to relieve this problem? What does our client Hilario want from D-Lab to help solve this issue? How can our team help alleviate this problem from what interventions?

After we noted these important scope questions, we further researched and analyzed how the production of silage was the best solution for the cattle especially during the dry seasons and how designing a forage chopper for the community is much needed and asked for from Hilario. After knowing this, we further researched more scientific articles and wrote our different sector papers specializing in certain aspects of our project (silage benefits and production, industrial forage choppers, hand-powered choppers, holistic land management). We also continued to have weekly interviews with Hilario asking more specific questions about the feedstock the community uses, specific costs of feed, what the feed was made of, material costs needed for a chopper design, the costs of crop residues, the challenges producing silage, how much land is available for crops and grazing during the dry and wet seasons, etc.

Thus, this section was a huge portion of our feasibility analysis of further understanding the community’s needs and available resources. This helped us narrow down our project goals into realistic and straightforward solutions that can be implemented into the community and help satisfy our client’s needs as well.

4.4 Projected Addition of Value

Surplus residues, unused by local farmers, will be sold to the community’s cattle owners. Demand for these residues is currently low, though the success of this project could create a more competitive market. Currently, the production of silage turns a very low-value commodity into a high-value asset (that is, cattle feed). The cow itself turns the silage into calories and nutrients that humans can then access via food.

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By having year-round access to the nutritional benefits conferred by dairy products, via a process that requires relatively low time and energy inputs, community members will be able to devote their attention to other pursuits and endeavors beyond ensuring that they and their families are fed. Food security at a community level can open up other doors as members are able to thrive and devote their attention beyond day to day survival.

Cattle owners, right now, are letting their cows starve rather than expending the large amounts of time and energy that would be necessary to feed them. They regard dairy foods as supplemental to diet staples and do not usually go out of their way to purchase them outside of the community. As such, this silage production practice will not be undercutting other business (i.e. a cattle feed producer or commercial dairy salesman).

Entrepreneurial opportunities may arise in terms of the chopper itself (replicating it via supplies from the local hardware store), renting out choppers to other communities, or via selling surplus dairy products to neighbors and other local residents.

5. Results

5.1 Client InterviewsHilario Lopez is our main client and our first hand communicator from the community

that has formed the basis of this project. His notions were our directions as to what the goal was. In order to better define the situation, the team asked many questions about the community, cows, and silage production in the community. Below is a table laying out data from the following conversations:

Cows Community Silage

Number: ~ 60 cows total.

Feed: They are mostly grazing pasture. Some remains of sorghum crop as well.-Cows are fed dry grass or hay in the dry season.-Some nutritional blocks so the cattle

Silage knowledge: No silage is in production at the moment. There are 3 diesel powered choppers in the community, and one person is willing to share.-Half the community knows about silage production and its benefits-Some community members chop up the material and give it to the cows without fermenting, or they store it in conditions that can grow mold which can make the cows sick.Resources: There is a welder in the community

Feedstock used: Pasture, Taiwan Grass, Sorghum, Corn. current production:Silage produced by hand chopping and storing in a 100 lb plastic bag 0.5 m in the ground-3 men 1 hr with machete 100 lbsChallenges: Main issue is using machetes and bags. Machete leaves big chucks that rip through the bag.Seasons: November-April driest time. February, March and April

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don’t lose weight: molasses, semolina, lime, urea, salt

Cost: One head cattle must pay 150 cordobas every month to graze commercial land

Current state:6 people including Hilario have:3 cows in production8 are pregnant (they will calve at different times)

With workshops and facilitation rotational grazing is a possibility.-Totogalpa has hardware stores and welders and its 5 km away-1500 cordobas is a rough estimate for monthly expenses a family of 5-Hilario doesnt make more than 2000 on a good month and some are unemployed or occasionally employed-Available Land: some have 1mz, some have ½, some rent landPlans: Forage chopper would be shared in the community-CRITERIA

economic (diesel is cheaper than gasoline and electricity)

environmental ease of use safety of use

-Community would like to use diesel because it saves them time. Payment plans aren’t options because of having no jobs sometimes.

are the toughest-August is dry as well mini summer (canicula)Cost:-The crop residue from one manzana (7000 m^2) of sorghum costs them 200 cordobas 500 lbs-Hilario has more or less measured: feeds 2 cows for a day on 200 lbs of grass fresh from 600 m^2-Cow feed is too expensive. One 100 lb bag is 1000 cordobas, way too much, no one sells silage-Current large chopper: Yamaha, funnel fed chipper-50 Cordobas per litre of diesel. They can chop 300 pounds worth of silage material per litre of diesel

5.2 Chopper Design CriteriaWe formulated an official Chopper Design Criteria that can help us and our client to

build a chopper that is the most sustainable and efficient for the Sabana Grande Community. Our criteria are made up of only five simple steps stated in the following:

1. Economically Affordablea. Diesel is preferred over electric and bike-powered due to time saving according to

Hilario ($1.80 USD per liter of diesel chops 300lbs of residue)b. A family of 5 makes ~$27 USD monthly

2. Mechanically Efficienta. A chopper with highest throughput (kg/hr)

3. Ease of Usea. A chopper that takes the least amount of effort to chop silage

4. Safety of Usea. A chopper that is not hazardous towards the people using it

5. Environmentally Sustainable

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a. Does not cause huge environmental damage like air pollution

5.3 Cost Benefit Analysis Overall, so far the most cost effective forage chopper design seems to be the repurposed

lawnmower and the choppers with the most time saved per hour are the diesel-powered and the solar-powered choppers. The following choppers are shown in a comparison table describing the specific economic, technologic, environmental and cultural differences whereas the graph show the cost and time saved of chopping per hour of all the choppers.

5.3.1 Comparison Table

manual machete chopping

Diesel powered chopper

solar powered chopper

Bike powered chopper

Animal feed price

manual chopper

repurposed lawnmower

Economic

cost ($/unit) $0.00 $900 * $300 ** $200.00 $0.00 $0.00 $100.00

total investment

cost $10.00 $900.00 $800.00 $200.00 $0.00 $65.00 $100.00

cost of power N/A$1.86/liter of diesel * 0 0 0 N/A

$1.86/liter of diesel *

cost of feedstock

($/kg) $0.03 $0.03 $0.03 $0.03 $0.80 $0.03 $0.03

throughput (kg chopped/hr) 15 kg/hr*

400 kg/hr **

~400 kg/hr 116 kg/hr*** N/A

~15x(8 blades) =

~100 kg/hr 200 kg/hr **

cost of chopping

($/kg) 0136kg/liter

of diesel

Solar maintena

nce

cost of workers

time N/A 068kg/liter of

diesel

total hours to feed 1 cow

during 3 months of driest time 92.4 3.5 3.5 11.95 0 15 6.93

total recurring cost of

feeding 1 cow during 3

months of driest time $41.60 $60.60 $41.60 $41.60 $3,240.00 $41.60 $78.60

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Total cost: investment

and feeding $51.60 $960.60 $841.60 $241.60 $3,240.00 $106.60 $178.60

Technology

chopping mechanism machete

rotating blade

rotating blade

rotating blade N/A

gravity pull-down blades

rotating blade

energy sourcemanual-powered diesel solar

pedal-powered N/A

manual-powered

diesel

quality of chopped residue low high high medium high medium

high

Environment

environmental impact (1, low -

3, high) 1 3 2 1 3 1 3

upkeep (1, low - 3, high) 1 2 2 3 N/A 1 2

availability (1, low - 3, high) 3 2 2 1 3 3

1

Culture /Society

client interest * low high medium medium low low low

benefits

convenient and known

processhighly

efficient efficient

environmentally

favorable

easy and known

source of high nutrition easy to use

easy to use, efficient, and cost effective

building hr 0 0 2 weeks 4 weeks 1 week 5 weeks

mobility portable/ stationary stationary stationary stationary stationary

user scale individual communitycommunit

y community individual all group

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drawback

caloric expenditure, takes a long time,

incosistent chopping

sizes

costly, loud, fuel

smell, environme

ntal impact,

dangerous

Unreliable energy source, cannot

chop during night,

expensive

high caloric expenditure,

unreliable availability

of parts, need more

than 1 person to

operateExpensive/

unaffordable

need enough hand power

from a person to work for a

long period of time

item is not available

locally, diesel powered.

sources: * Lopez, 2015 , ** Alibaba, 2015, *** Khope 2013

5.3.1 Comparison of Chopper TechnologiesFigure 1. Chart comparing hours saved compared to machete chopping and cost of chopper. Color represents environmental impact of each technology and line points to most ideal chopper.

5.4 Community Survey

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This unofficial pre-workshop questionnaire for the “Benefits of Silage” Workshop is what we developed so far and plan to ask the community before going into the workshop activities. We did not put together a post-workshop questionnaire for this workshop and questionnaires for the “Silage Production” Workshop yet.

Pre-Workshop Questionnaire for “ Benefits of Silage ” Workshop Objective: Preliminary Needs Assessment of Silage Knowledge of Small-Scale Cattle Owners in Sabana Grande*Units:

• 1 manzana (unit) = 1.72 acres (6,961 m2)• 45 kg feed/per cow per day (in Sabana Grande)• Adequate milk production:

o Normal milk production (average) = 12 liters/dayo Normal lactation duration = 310 days

Farm Information:How many cows do you own? Heifers? Bulls? Calves?What is your main use for owning cows (milk production, meat, cheese, income, etc)?How much land do you own or rent for raising livestock and growing crops?

Milk Production:How many liters of milk does each cow produce during the wet season? What is the lowest and highest amount of liters of milk? Dry season? Lowest and highest amounts of liters of milk?How many days does each cow lactate on average?How much is consumed in your household? How much is sold? How much do you sell excess milk?

Crop Residue Usage:How often do you use crop residues for your cattle (how many times a week) during the wet season? During the dry season? Do you use your own or do you purchase it?How many lbs of crop residue does each cow need during the wet season? During the dry season? How many lbs of crop residues are left in excess?

Market for Milk and Crop Residue:What is the price of milk during the wet season? Dry season?What is the price of crop residues during the wet season? Dry season?

Grazing and Land Management:What crops do you grow for your household consumption? How much land in manzanas?What crops/grasses do you grow for cattle feed? How much land in manzanas?How much land do your cattle normally graze on in manzanas? How long do your cattle graze in that same area? What season?

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How often do you rotate your cattle to graze on a different area? How often within a year?Knowledge of Silage Benefits:Have you considered using silage as a feed resource for your cattle during the dry season? Do you make or buy silage for your cattle? Do you know how to produce silage?Do you know the nutritional benefits silage has for your cattle? Have you been to any workshops that talked about the nutritional benefits silage has for you cattle? From Hilario? From the UC Davis vet students?

6. Recommandations:

6.1 Broad Recommendations After D-Lab I, we will continue to work on this project in D-Lab II and travel to the

Sabana Grande community in Nicaragua during this summer. D-Lab II would be our design period where we will build different types of chopper prototypes to explore the most suitable design that will fit our chopper criteria to implement in the community. During this time, we will also develop official questionnaires and workshop activities in order to outreach and understand the community’s knowledge in silage benefits and production. After we officially build an ideal chopper prototype and developed our workshop lesson plans, we will travel to Sabana Grande during the summer for one month from mid June- mid July to interact with the community in person and build our chopper there with the community workers. We also hope to collaborate with the SOH vet students and Susan Kinne in Sabana Grande during this time in order to help facilitate our project ideas from their expertise.

6.1.1 Chopper RecommendationsThe team’s research has shown that there are several options for a best fit chopper. We

will officially be looking at diesel-powered, solar-powered, bike-powered and manual-powered chopper designs and build these prototypes in D-Lab II. Since we have already carried out a cost-benefit analysis for the materials and cost of each chopper that is available in the community, we will use these specific materials to build our prototypes.

6.1.2 Educational RecommendationsAs we already have an unofficial community pre-workshop questionnaire for the

“Benefits of Silage” Workshop, we plan to put together a post-workshop questionnaire and write up specific workshop activities for this workshop to implement during the summer. In addition, we plan to also put together pre and post-workshop questionnaires and develop hands-on activities for the “Silage Production” Workshop as well for the community during the summer.

6.1.3 Holistic Management RecommendationsFor holistic resource management to be successfully carried out in Sabana Grande

somebody would need to be educated fairly extensively in the practice. That person would need to hold a certain amount of social sway and be committed to staying with the community and overseeing the project.

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Our group does believe that holistic land management could have a long-term role in the community, but after looking at holistic resource management as a practice in general we have determined that it belongs much further along in our planning. It won’t give us immediate results in terms of cow health and dairy output, and it won’t generate the type of community buzz and excitement towards solving the skinny cow problem that we are looking for at this stage in the project.

Once the community is ready to begin exploring holistic resource management, however, there are certain steps that will need to be carried out. Land surveys will need to be disseminated and unhealthy areas of soil identified. A plan to correct or account for different familial inputs/outputs will need to be agreed upon. A willingness to cooperate among different families, and a certain level of commitment to the concept, will be absolutely vital for a project like this to succeed in Sabana Grande.

Holistic management has a place in our long-term plan—but it isn’t something that should be taken lightly or that one should dive into without proper understanding and training. If the community chooses to proceed with this idea a good next step would be to begin networking and looking for those who have already completed the holistic resource management class or who, by some measure or other, possess the information necessary to get started on a project like this.Alternatively, additional funding could be secured for the class to be taken first-hand by a community member themselves.

6.2 Scalability The exact outcome of this project has yet to be determined due to the extensive testing

that will be carried out in the next 10 weeks. Once a conclusion has been drawn it is entirely possible that the solution will be transferable to other communities that struggle to nourish their cattle both on a national and global level.

6.2.1 Chopper ScalabilityDue to past NGO involvement in Sabana Grande, especially by Susan Kinne’s Grupo

Fenix, the local community tends to regard collaborative projects, which involve members from outside the community, in a favorable and positive light. Community members are largely open-minded and excited to experiment with new technologies (having had tremendous success following the introduction of solar technologies by Grupo Fenix). Knowing this, we are able to explore a more complete range of chopper designs--ranging from diesel to solar to human-powered.

As such, we might expect more favorable outcomes and community buy-in in Sabana Grande than in the typical rural community. Some communities, for instance, may experience a more difficult time leaving behind traditional practices in favor of unknown new technologies than we anticipate from Sabana Grande residents.

The community resources that are available in Sabana Grande are a major contributing factor in terms of design feasibility and maintenance. Community access will differ among communities and so, when looking forward to expand this project, this will need to be considered.

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Further, the effectiveness of the design itself will largely be determined throughout the course of time as it is used regularly and the community has a chance to provide feedback. This period of practical use will allow us to isolate issues before seeking to scale-up the project.

A successful project in Sabana Grande will go a long way towards making this project successful elsewhere, as proof that this is a functional solution will be our project ’s biggest advocate.

6.2.2 Workshop ScalabilityWe anticipate that the workshop will be less transferable between communities than will

a technology such as the chopper. However, community surveys will be designed to gather appropriate information from a range of different cultures, environments, etc. With the data provided from these surveys broad concepts and workshop lessons may be individualized and made appropriate across a variety of physical and social circumstances.

The workshops that we plan specifically in conjunction with our project, however, will be very community centric and tailored against that which we know about Sabana Grande specifically from our research, interviews, and questionnaires.

6.2.3 Holistic Management ScalabilityHolistic management is not a concept that we are pioneering, but rather a well-researched

practice that we recommend might be employed in a long-term plan to solve the problem of malnourished cattle in Sabana Grande. Holistic management, in practice, is specific and goal oriented and varies drastically from one environment to another. As such, it is not something that we would presently be seeking to scale up in other communities, though it might become routine to advise communities of its existence and general principles.

7. Project ReflectionWith conflicting schedules among our team-members, a 2 hour time difference between

the US and Nicaragua, and an inability to communicate with our client via e-mail we were, at the beginning of the quarter, unsure of how we would proceed and overcome these challenges. Through communication with each other, a willingness to compromise, and a commitment to both the project and our client, we were able to establish a weekly regimen for phone calls--something that we are convinced the project could not have succeeded without.

Beyond our ability to make calls, however, by far the most important component was our client himself. We have had the privilege of working with a very committed and communicative client. Without Hilario’s dedication we would have had a far more difficult time collecting and synthesizing the information needed to inform our analyses and decision making frameworks. Even so, it was a true learning experience to realize all of the little questions that must be asked in order to paint a clear picture of a community. It was time consuming and could sometimes be frustrating when we felt that half an hour worth of questioning could be answered by five minutes on the ground, in the community itself. It was worthwhile, however, to hear Hilario’s thoughts and ideas about his community, rather than for us to come in as outsiders and draw our own conclusions.

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By being forced to ask Hilario questions which addressed the various minutiae of the community we were simultaneously forced to check our assumptions and realize how little we did know about the community. We imagine that had we first spent time in the community, without this primer, we may have been inclined to draw our own conclusions without ever asking some of the questions that needed to be asked.

At the beginning of this process we called Hilario with only our four team-members present, hoping that our elementary Spanish abilities would be enough to allow us to communicate with him, but they weren’t. After only one call with Jorge’s help as a translator we realized how vital a clear line of communication would be to this process. With Jorge’s willingness to gamely serve as a translator thereafter our team truly learned to appreciate the value conferred by ease of communication with our client. We realize how invaluable this has been to the successes we have experienced with this project so far. Communication with Hilario has, truly, been the key to this entire process.

Writing individual sector papers helped us each become a mini-expert in a particular area of the project. This created a platform for dynamic discussions amongst ourselves and for ideas that were more rich and creative as we bounced different concepts, rooted in our different ‘specialties,’ against each other.

Towards the end of this quarter, our team learned that the undergraduate members (so far) have been awarded the PATA undergraduate student grant by the Blum Center for Developing Economies to travel to Nicaragua this summer and to implement the ideas that we have been working towards. This really boosted the excitement of the team, and it’s awesome knowing that we will get to stay with this project and see it through to a tangible outcome.

8. References

“Climate.” Climate. ViaNica, n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.

Guevara-Stone, Laurie. "Solar Innovation Gives Nicaraguan Community a Brighter Future." GreenBiz. N.p., n.d. Web.

Guevara-Stone, Laurie. "Women's Empowerment through Renewable Energy: A Case Study of Nicaragua." Women's Empowerment through Renewable Energy: A Case Study in

Nicaragua (n.d.): n. pag. Solar Energy International. Web.

“How much milk do cows give?” Dairy Moos. http://www.dairymoos.com/how-much-milk-do-cows-give/. 15 February 2015.

“How to Fight Desertification and Reverse Climate Change.” Allan Savory: TED Talk, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2015.

Khope, P. B., and J. P. Modak. "Development And Performance Evaluation Of A Human Powered Flywheel Motor Operated Forge Cutter."International Journal of Scientific &

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Technology Research 2.3 (2013): 146-49. Web. 15 Feb. 2015.

Lopez, Hilario. (26 Jan. 2, 9, 23 Feb. 2, 11 March. 2015). Telephone interviews.

Randolph, T. F., et al. "Role of livestock in human nutrition and health for poverty reduction in developing countries." Journal of animal science 85.11 (2007): 2788-2800.

Reyes, Y. “Familias reciben Bono Productivo Alimentario en San Isidro de Bolas.” El 19. El 19, 17 May 2014. http://www.el19digital.com/articulos/ver/titulo:18495-familias-

reciben- bono-productivo-alimentario-en-san-isidro-de-bolas. 15 February 2015.

Savory, Allan. “The Savory Grazing Method or Holistic Resource Management.” Rangelands 5.4(1983): 155-59. JSTOR. Web. 15 Feb. 2015.

Wheeler, B., “Guidelines for Feeding Dairy Cows.” FAO. September 2003. http://www.fao.org/prods/gap/database/gap/files/

1334_GUIDELINES_FOR_FEEDING_DAIRY_COWS.HTM. 15 February 2015.

White, S. L., et al. "Milk production and economic measures in confinement or pasture systems using seasonally calved Holstein and Jersey cows." Journal of dairy science 85.1

(2002): 95-104.

9. AppendicesAppendix 1:We owe our thanks to the following mentors and contributors for their willingness to collaborate, brainstorm, and provide us with resources and support throughout the process thus far. We look forward to continuing this process with these folks by our side!

Contributors

Hilario Lopez, Vet Promoter and Farm Leader

Our main client who we had weekly interviews and gave great info about Sabana Grande

Students for One Health (SOH) Vet Students

Health of community’s cattle and trip logistics

IAD Graduate Students Provided silage production rates and benefits for community

Susan Kinne, Community Leader in Sabana Grande

Contact for advice on solar panels, a supporter of our project

Mentors

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http://www.fao.org/

http://www.el19digital.com/articulos/ver/titulo:18495-familias-reciben-

http://www.el19digital.com/articulos/ver/titulo:18495-familias-reciben-


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Patricia Andrade Main project mentor

Jorge Espinoza Served as translator between English and Spanish, provided general support and ideas

Appendix 2:

This is an image of Hilario Lopez chopping crop residue by hand with a machete in order to make silage.

Appendix 3:

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An overview of the process of producing silage.

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fao.org

http://fao.org/

Documents

3.1 Community Background: Sabana Grande · Web viewpage 18-20 Project Reflection ... page 20-21 References ... page 21-22 Appendices ... compared to 30 liters of milk per cow per day