Bibliographic review on hydroponic forage cultivation for dairy cattle feeding in Ecuador

Abstract

Hydroponic forage crops are an excellent alternative to supply the nutritional requirements in livestock feed to a certain extent, complementing livestock production in the shortest possible time and optimizing resources such as water and land. The objective of this bibliographic review study was to determine the nutritional composition, nutritional requirements, and the effect of the use of hydroponic forage crops on milk production in Ecuador, for which a total search of bibliography related to the subject was carried out in different scientific bases, such as Scopus, Springer, Scielo, Google Scholar, Researchgate, undergraduate, master's and doctoral thesis to later, using the Mendeley bibliographic manager, carry out a total analysis of the information. The nutritional content of the different forage hydroponic crops shows high values of protein, energy, and digestibility; the best results reported were 25.75%, 75% and 95%, respectively. Regarding nutritional requirements, hydroponic crops require 168-200 mg/L of nitrogen, 31-60 mg/L of phosphorus and 156-300 mg/L of potassium; to obtain forage with high-quality standards, on the other hand, the use of forage hydroponic crops can increase milk production by up to 14.7%, so its use in livestock feeding is recommended.