Seasonal influence on nutrient requirements of ruminants: A Review

There are different agro climatic zones in the tropical countries hence seasonal change is most evident. Adverse climate might lead to environmental stress and changes of physiological and haemato-biochemical parameters in the body. Of the many types of stresses affecting rate and efficiency of animal productivity, most important are the thermal environment and associated factors of humidity, radiation and air movement than factors such as altitude, animal density, confinement etc. To reduce this condition, adequate nutrient requirement through diet should be fulfilled basically requirement for maintenance and production purpose. Nutrient requirements have been commonly esthablished in conditions presumed to be relatively free of environmental stress and animals are expected to perform near the genetic potential in the intensive production system. For that reason, such requirements are most relevent during optimum environmental conditions and are less appropriate when animals are exposed to stressful environments. Recently the feeding systems followed in tropical countries are ME and NE for energy feeding and for protein feeding CP along with MP system to meet the nutrient requirement. Here, an effort has been made to review the different modifications of feeding system over the earlier one along with influence of climate and related factors that affect nutrient requirement and utilization. The aim of the present manuscript is to modify the requirement with various climatic variables for augmenting production efficiency and cost effective farming.