In an experiment, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) was effective in reducing bacteria leaf spot (Xanthomonas campestris pv.
vesicatoria) in pepper (Capsicum annuum L. var. annuum ), under greenhouse and open field conditions.

Also, when applied to plant roots (by watering), LABs were able to colonise roots, produce indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), siderophores and solubilise phosphate.

Recommended Read: How to produce your own lactic acid bacteria

Experiment source: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09583157.2014.894495

Respiratory diseases are bad for animals. If they can't breath well they may die or loose weight. I once had a bad experience with layers. One night, I noticed that many birds find it very very difficult to breath. You could hear sounds as they struggle to breath. From time to time, they will violently shake their heads as if to cough out phlem. After a course of antibiotics, they recovered but some died. Weeks later, I found out about bromhexine, a drug that can greatly improve efficiency of antibiotics used for respiratory diseases. I soon found a drug from Animal Care Nigeria that contains bromhexine. It is Conflox, containing Enrofloxacin, an antibiotic, and bromhexine hydrochloride. Below are some important facts about bromhexine.

1. Bromehexane breaks down mucus blocking the respiratory tract and this helps the animal to breath better. It also help in healing the inflammation in the oesopgagus.

2. Bromhexine alters the ability of bacteria (P. aeruginosa , E.coli , S. aureus) to adhere to the upper respiratory tract. This way, they will be flushed out.

3. Bromhexine modifies the distribution of antibiotics in the organism and increases their concentration in the respiratory system, thus making them more effective. It may be used in conjunction with antibiotics and/or sulphonamides, bronchodilators . The concomitant administration of bromhexine with antibiotics has enabled a 41% increase in spiramycin concentration in nasal secretions of heifers after two days of treatment. A 25-35% increase of tylosine or erythromycin concentrations in the serum of cows after a single administration was noted. Bromhexine also significantly increased concentrations of tylosin in serum and in nasal secretions of pigs after a single administration. Maximum concentration (Cmax) was 50-70% higher that the Cmax of oxytetracycline administered alone in cows, the absorption half-life was significantly shorter and the elimination half-life was unchanged.

4. In humans, bromhexine is used to relief painful sore throat. Relief is quick and can last up to 3 hours. Caution should be taken by patients with gastric ulceration, and usage during the first trimester of pregnancy is not recommended. Don't depend on this advice, consult a doctor if you have sore throat.

Recommended Link: https://www.ceva.co.uk/Poultry/Water-Solutions/ExFlow

I want this post to be a great resource for herbs and organic acids that can be used to booste poultry growth, immunity, egg production etc.

Herbs for Broilers
The 2 herbs: E. odoratum and O. gratissimum (scent leaves) are good for broilers. They help improve growth and build immune system against diseases. Prepare by soaking 200g of dry leaves in 1 liter warm water for 12 hours. Soak them separately and give each at 25ml per liter of drinking water. SOURCE:
https://scialert.net/fulltextmobile/?doi=ajpsaj.2017.90.95

Images of E. odoratum from tramil.net and revolvy.com

  Revolvy.com.e.odorata.jpeg (Size: 8.09 KB / Downloads: 24)

  Tramil.net.e.odorata2.jpeg (Size: 13.45 KB / Downloads: 23)

  Tramil.net.e.odorata.jpeg (Size: 10.56 KB / Downloads: 20)

Do I need to include photo of scent leaves? Anyway:

  download (2).jpeg (Size: 10.43 KB / Downloads: 20)
From healthbid.net.

Good Organic Acids for Birds
Adding butyric acid to broiler feed at 0.2% can help maintain their performance and carcass quality.

Sodium butyrate is also good. Salts of butyrate, propionate and acetate can decrease salmonella (a disease-causing organism) colonization of chicken cecum. They reduce litter contamination and neutralize ammonia production. But note that the effectiveness of organic acids may also depend on diet composition and its buffering capacity.

If you allow poultry litter to get too wet, ammonia, a gas that smells like urine, will be released. Levels as low as 25 part per million can create costly challenges for you. At that level, you can not even detect it with your nose. Manage your litter well and boost your birds' performance. Your birds will grow well, lay well and will be less prone to diseases. Read how to manage your poultry litter. http://www.farmersjoint.com/blog/livestock-farming/poultry/wet-litter-broiler-houses-causes-control/

Noiler was developed in Nigeria by Amo farm Sieberer Hatchery by crossing broilers and cockerel. Their color can be black, white, yellow, brown or gray patches. They attain 3-4kg in 4 months. Cockerels can reach 2kg in 6 months. They are good foragers and so like local birds, they can be left to find food for themselves.

Noilers are more disease resistant than broilers. Hens start laying at 22 weeks old and can lay for 2 years, giving about 200 eggs per year. Their eggs are bigger than those of local hens.

Kuroilers: Developed in India by crossing white leghorn rooster with Rhode Island Red hen or
colored broiler rooster with Rhode Island Red hens. They are also good foragers and can look like Noilers. They grow faster than noilers but need more care. They are best raised under extensive or semi intensive system as giving only formulated feed is not cost effective. They can attain 5kg in 4 months. They lay 150-200 eggs per yr and resist diseases better
than noilers.

Both breeds do not brood chicks by themselves.

Biosecurity are measures taken to prevent pests and diseases from entering the farm. It involves limiting visitors' entry, controlling vermins like rats, controlling insects like litter beetles, mosquitos, full change of cloth by staffs, foot dip with phenol at every
door etc. Rats can transmit a lot of deadly diseases to birds. They also recontaminate disinfected pens. Mosquitoes can transmit fowlpox, including the dreaded wet form of fowlpox. Litter beetles, rats, can transmit diseases and recontaminate pens. For more info on biosecurity, see www.farmersjoint.com/blog/livestock-farming/biosecurity-how-to-protect-your-poultry-farm-from-pests-and-diseases/

By the 7th day, chicks' weight shud be 4x their day old weight or more. Each 1g of weight gained by day 7 will yield additional 6g by day 35.
Good 7th day weight gain will lead to lower feed consumption per unit weight and lower final mortality. At day 7, mortality should be 1% or less.

However, for broilers that will exceed 2.5kg at slaughter, slightly lower early growth rate may benefit lifetime performance. This will give the cardiocascular and
skeletal system to develop well.

Read http://www.farmersjoint.com/blog/livestock-farming/poultry/raising-chicks-things-you-must-do-during-the-first-week

Do you know that floor temperature is more important than air temperature? How do you feel in cold weather, if you lie on a cold floor in a warm room? It would be uncomfortable and a health threat. Chicks feel the same
way too. To ensure that the floor is warm, start heating the pen before the chicks arrive. I also have a thick layer of wood shavings on the floor.

The first 5 days is the most critical period. Within 2 weeks they become able to regulate their body temperature. Best way to check if temperature is ok is to wat ch the
chicks. If they are panting, have their wings spread apart or staying away from the heat source, reduce temperature. If they're inactive, coming closer to the heat source, increase temperature. Chicks that are comfortable will be active and distributed uniformly throughout the brooder.

Maintaing the correct brooding
temperature will lead to higher weight gain, lower feed consumption per kg weight gain, lower mortality and cost.

Read http://www.farmersjoint.com/blog/livestock-farming/poultry/raising-chicks-things-you-must-do-during-the-first-week

In this post, I will be making a list of info on poultry feed that I gathered from various researches.

1. Guinea grass in broiler diet: Guinea grass can replace up to 15% maize in broilers' diet. Considering the cheapness of guinea grass, this is a welcome info.

2. Sun-dried sweet potato meal can
replace up to 50% maize in broiler and pig ration with good result.

3. Cassava leaf meal can be included at 10 - 20% in broilers' diet if methionine and energy (carbohydrate) levels are increased. It can also replace other high fiber feedstuffs like palm kernel cake.

4. Duckweed (Lemna perpusilla): When broiler feed was partially replaced with 6% fresh or 7% dry duckweed, there was no effect on feed intake, weight gain, amount of feed consumed per kg gain and meat quality. Feed cost was reduced.

But note, the diet must still be balanced nutritionally for these to
work.

Adult meat goats must not be fed more than 1% of their body weight in grain. That is, the weight of grain fed must not be more than 1% of the goat's body weight. If the goat weighs 30kg, don't feed more than 0.3kg grain (i.e. 1/100 x 30kg = 0.3kg or 300g). This is
necessary so as to avoid a metabolic disease called acidiosis. For lactating does, grain shud not exceed 1.5% of her bodyweight.

In this post I'll be sharing some very important facts about goat health. I got them when I was doing some goat research as I'm planning to start a goat farm.
1. Offer kids feed containing coccidiostat from 2-6 weeks of age. Also offer it when they are weaned.

Examples of coccidiostat and their dosage (mg/kg body weight) in braclet include:
amprolium (50 mg/kg body weight . For 5 days)

monensin (0.75g per 44kg body weight or 15g/ton feed. This is fairly toxic. Should be fed throughout feeding period)

Sulfa drugs (include dimidine, guanidine, methazine, quinoxalin,) Reduce dose by half on subsequent days and treat for 3-5 days.

Lasalocid (20-90g/ton feed)

Decoquinate (0.5mg/kg feed for 28 days. No withdrawal period needed before animal is slaughtered)

Urea molasses block is a good suplement for cattle, especially those that are fed low quality forage like rice straw, grass hay, corn stover and other crop residues. It helps make the low quality forage more digestible and the animal gain more weight and produce more milk.The block is rich in protein (from urea), energy (from molasses, grain meals etc) and minerals (from mineral premix).
.
There are different ways to produce urea-molasses blocks. Here is one:
Molases: 30%
Rice bran: 20%
Urea: 4%
Cassava meal: 23%
Soybeans meal: 10%
Bone meal: 5%
Mineral premix: 3%
Salt: 5%
Bentonite: 5%

PKC contains copper at levels toxic to sheep. But for cattle, it is a good supplement and fattening feed. Up to 80% PkC is used in growing cattle feed in Malaysia. For dairy cows, up to 50% can be used. For sheep, limit it to 30%.

Here is a feed formulae for cattle that can be fed in addition to grass:
Poultry litter: 65%
Citrus meal: 25%
Molasses: 9%
Minerals-vitamins premix: 1%)

Just like in poultry, knowing how much a cow will consume per day is important in planning feeding. Cows will eat more if the forage quality is high and vice versa. Below is the info:
1. Low Quality Forage: Examples include mature grass, crop residues etc. Intake will be about 1.5% of the cow's body weight.

2. Average-to-Good Quality Forage: Includes leafy grass with few seed heads. Intake is about 2.5% of body weight.

3. High Quality Forage: include young, leafy grass, legumes. Intake will be about 3% of body weight.

Beef cattle can be fed a diet containing 70% grass and 30% legume. If crude protein intake is ok in forage-based feed, most other essential nutrients will be ok. But some minerals, especially phosphorus may be needed.

Napier grass and sweet potato forage can give as much as 0.5kg weight gain per day in heifers.

Green leaf desmodium and poor quality Pennisetum purpureum (16 weeks regrowth and 6.4% crude protein base on dry matter) gave 0.638kg daily weight gainto Heifers in Kenya. The desmodium was fed at 20% of dry matter intake and the grass was made available free choice.

Beef cattle can be fed a diet containing 70% grass and 30% legume. If crude protein intake is ok in forage-based feed, most other essential nutrients will be ok. But some minerals, especially phosphorus may be needed.

Napier grass and sweet potato forage can give as much as 0.5kg weight gain per day in heifers.

Green leaf desmodium and poor quality Pennisetum purpureum (16 weeks regrowth and 6.4% crude protein base on dry matter) gave 0.638kg daily weight gainto Heifers in Kenya. The desmodium was fed at 20% of dry matter intake and the grass was made available free choice.

Beef cattle can be fed a diet containing 70% grass and 30% legume. If crude protein intake is ok in forage-based feed, most other essential nutrients will be ok. But some minerals, especially phosphorus may be needed.

Napier grass and sweet potato forage can give as much as 0.5kg weight gain per day in heifers.

Green leaf desmodium and poor quality Pennisetum purpureum (16 weeks regrowth and 6.4% crude protein base on dry matter) gave 0.638kg daily weight gainto Heifers in Kenya. The desmodium was fed at 20% of dry matter intake and the grass was made available free choice.

Urea is a very cheap form of protein for ruminants. It is a form of protein called non-protein nitrogen (NPN) because it is not like the proteins found in meat, soybeans meal, fish meal etc. But mricrobes in ruminants' belly can use it as protein and multiply. When they die, the animal will use them as a source of protein.

Urea can do wonders in terms of promoting growth or milk yield. But too much can lead to disastrous effect. For milking cows, give a maximum of 220g per cow per day. But 110 to 150g per cow per day is more common. Mix it in the concentrate feed to achieve 1 to 2% urea in the total grain ration or 2.8 to 5.6% crude protein from NPN in total grain ration.

Urea contains about 262 to 287% crude protein.

Don't feed urea together with raw soybeans hull because an enzyme in the hull will break down urea to ammonia, causing poor palatability (poor feed intake). Also, don't feed it to calves less than 3 months old.

Aspilia africana is a weed that can be found in nigeria and other countries. It is good for rabbits. It can increase their milk production and growth. Fresh one will give higher milk yield and growth than wilted one.

In this experiment, the diet used was:
Centrosema pubescens: 200g
Sweet potato leaves: 200g
Panicum maxima: 100g
Aspilia africana: 500g

The rabbits were also fed a concentrate feed that contains:
Maize offal: 45%
Palm kernel cake: 30%
Soybean meal: 20%
Blood meal: 2%
Bone meal: 2%
Vitamins-minerals premix: 0.25%
Salt: 0.25%

250g of the premix contains vit A: 1500IU, vit D: 300IU, Vit E: 3 IU, vit k: 0.25g, Thiamine: 0.2mg, Riboflavin: 0.6mg, Pantothenic acid: 1mg, Pyridoxine: 0.4999mg, Niacin:4mg, vit B2: 0.002mg, Folic acid: 0.1mg, Biotin: 0.008mg, Choline: 0.05g, Antioxidant: 0.012g, Manganese: 0.0096g, Zinc: 0.006g, Copper: 0.0006g, Iodine: 0.00014g, Selenium: 0.024mg, Cobalt: 0.004mg