Formulation of Least-Cost Dairy Ration for Small-Scale Dairy Farms Using ‘Solver Add-Ins’ in Microsoft Excel

Small-scale dairy farming in Bangladesh is constrained mostly due to acute shortage, high price and sea-sonal fluctuation of energy and protein supplements. Poor economic conditions of dairy farmers do not al-low them to purchase adequate conventional energy and protein supplements. Locally available non-conventional energy and protein sources can be used as alternatives, cheaper than conventional energy and protein sources. Non-conventional feedstuffs are deficient in certain macro and micro nutrients. As a result, formulation of a least-cost balanced ration using non-conventional feedstuffs is a major challenge for mar-ginal farmers. The current study presents a least-cost formulation plan for the small-scale dairy farmers using locally available low-cost non-conventional feedstuffs. A simple Microsoft Excel program with ‘Solver Add-ins’ has been used to formulate least-cost rations for crossbred and indigenous dairy cows. The step by step logical procedure ensured that the ration was balanced for most of the key nutrients, was least-cost and gave the user significant control over the formulation process. Incorporation of multipurpose low cost neglected forages such as water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), helencha (Enhydra fluctuans), ipil-ipil (Leucaena leucocephala) and their subsequent effect on cost minimization is discussed. This formula-tion method may be recommended for use by small-scale dairy farmers as well as livestock extension work-ers who wish to formulate least-cost dairy rations using locally available feed sources to optimize the feed-ing of dairy animals at farm level.