Gross energetics in the evaluation of the functioning of Instructional Dairy Farm at Pantnagar, India

Abstract

Instructional Dairy Farm at Pantnagar University was studied for evaluating its energetic efficiency, an important measure to evaluate the functioning of a production system. The total organic inputs and outputs of the dairy farm were converted into their respective energy values. Of the total energy flows involved in the dairy farm, 72.6% was the input energy suggesting that most of the energy flow in the dairy farm takes place through feeds. Of the total energy output, dung accounted for 54.83% and milk 44.86%. Only 0.31% of the total output energy was contained in the new born calves. The energy balance of the dairy farm reflected that dung was the most important product, though milk was regarded as most valuable product as it is used for direct human consumption. Gross energetic efficiency of the farm worked out to be 37.7%. This reflects that 62.3% of the total energy was being used for nonproductive purposes (methane production or others).

Keywords

• Dairy farm
• energetic efficiency
• energy
• input energy
• output energy