Silage Making to Improve the Nutrition of Milking Animals for Small Scale Farmers’ in Benue State

Abstract

This study examines silage making to improve the nutrition of milking animals for small-scale farmers in Benue state. Specific objectives of the study are to determine the silage-making activities; determine the reasons for the non-adaptation of silage-making, and determine strategies of silage-making to improve the nutrition of milking animals for small-scale farmers in Benue State. Three research questions and null hypotheses were raised and tested at a 0.05 level of significance. The design for the study was a survey 
research design. The population was 190 respondents which was used as sample size. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled: Silage Making to Improve Nutrition of Milking Animals Questionnaire (SMINMAQ). The instrument was validated by three experts. The reliability of the instrument was done by administering 30 copies of the questionnaire to 10 lecturers and 20 agricultural extension agents; the data collected was subjected to reliability analysis using the Cronbach (α) technique of estimating the internal consistency of the instrument. A reliability coefficient of 0.77 was obtained, which indicates that questionnaire items were valid for the study. The data collected was analyzed using both descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation and a t-test was used for testing hypotheses. The findings revealed that all the silage makes activities, reasons for non-adaptation, and strategies to manage silage-making to improve the nutrition of milking animals for small-scale farmers in Benue State. The null hypothesis of no significant difference tested at 0.05 level was not rejected when the P-value was greater or equal to 0.05 while rejected when the P-value was less than 0.05 level of significance. Based on the findings, the following recommendations were made; training activities and programmes such as farm visit field days and workshop/seminars for small-scale farmers be examined to educate them on silage making; to determine reasons for adaptation silage making; research to be conducted on the strategies to manage silage making to improve the nutrition of milking animals for small-scale farmers in Benue state, Nigeria.