Livestock Feed

Nopal Nutrition is a socially responsible company that promotes Regenerative Agriculture and Sustainability. Our mission is to promote the worldwide consumption and cultivation of the nopal Opuntia cactus native to Mexico and its fruits.

Our sustainable solution to secure Livestock Feed for arid and semi-arid regions of the world.

As a result of climate change, more and more, it’s difficult for countries in arid and semi-arid areas of the world to grow enough forage or fodder to feed their livestock.

Globally, the livestock industry is a significant generator of greenhouse gas emissions (GHS). Climate change, human population growth, prolonged droughts, and desertification will force the global livestock industry to explore new sustainable options to feed their livestock.

Our nopal Opuntia Feed Crops are a strategic solution to secure sustainable livestock feed for countries in arid and semi-arid regions of the world that suffer from water scarcity and desertification. The nopal Opuntia plant can thrive in harsh conditions, producing abundant leaves or racquets with little or no irrigation water all year round.

Nopal Opuntia is one of the most beneficial crops available worldwide

The nopal Opuntia and its fruits have been consumed as food and medicine in Mexico for over six thousand years. Today, this plant is mainly used to produce foods, nutritional supplements, beauty products, renewable energy and livestock feed.

The nopal Opuntia is a drought-tolerant and water-efficient plant that produces abundant livestock feed of excellent nutritional quality and good palatability, even in degraded soils with low fertility and little rainfall.

In addition to providing hydration for livestock, the nopal Opuntia leaves are packed with minerals, fibre, antioxidants and vitamins.

What is the nopal Opuntia Fodder?

The nopal Opuntia Fodder is an innovative nutrient-rich livestock feed made from the mature leaves or racquets of the nopal Opuntia plant. The raw and juicy racquets are crushed and processed in a machine to increase their protein content through an innovative and simple method developed by Mexican researchers.

Protein enrichment of nopal Opuntia

Raw nopal Opuntia racquets contain potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, chlorophyll and broad composition of amino acids. However, they provide only about 5% of protein.

The protein enrichment of the nopal Opuntia is an innovative technology developed in Mexico to increase the protein content of raw nopal Opuntia racquets from 5% to more than 25%. The protein enrichment method allows us to produce fodder of excellent nutritional quality from nopal Opuntia.

The protein-enriched nopal Opuntia fodder is a green, nutrient-rich soup that can be dehydrated to obtain a powdered feed supplement for livestock.

Nopal Opuntia for a Sustainable Livestock Production System

A nopal Opuntia livestock production system is a livestock farm equipped with a nopal Opuntia plantation created to produce enough fodder to replace at least 60% of the livestock’s daily feed requirements.

Nopal Opuntia plantations destined to feed livestock are sustainable because they use little or no irrigation water; they are fertilized with organic livestock manure from the farms and sequester CO2 from the air. In addition, such plantations can be established on unproductive or degraded land to restore the natural environment and diversity.

Some advantages of using nopal Opuntia plantations to produce Livestock Feed:

Abundance and Availability

For years, Nopal-cactus fodder has been used successfully to feed cattle, sheep, and goats in arid and semi-arid regions of Mexico that suffer from water scarcity. Our special nopal Opuntia varieties for fodder production can sustainably produce abundant and nutritious livestock feed all year round. Each hectare plantation (2.47 acres) of nopal Opuntia plants can provide up to 600 metric tons of livestock feed per year, which can feed approximately 300 sheep or 60 cows for 10-15 years with little or no irrigation water.

More Competitive than other Feed Crops

Production costs to obtain nopal Opuntia fodder are considerably lower than the costs of producing other fodders. In terms of water use efficiency and yield, the nopal Opuntia plantations have advantages over traditional water-intensive crops like alfalfa.

Nopal Opuntia plantations are beneficial for the environment and people

Nopal Opuntia plantations can help accelerate the decarbonization of our planet while regenerating degraded land and biodiversity. They can sequester and permanently store large volumes of CO2 from the air and earn Carbon Offset Credits for livestock farmers.

Nopal Opuntia plantations can turn infertile and desertic regions into green and productive landscapes, creating green jobs and improving the living conditions of people in areas of our planet affected by desertification and water scarcity.

Ruminant Livestock | The nutritional benefits 

Scientific research has shown that adding nopal Opuntia fodder to the diet of ruminant livestock improves rumen fermentation and digestibility, increasing the average daily gain of growing ruminants.

In addition to providing livestock with protein, minerals, fibre, antioxidants, vitamins and chlorophyll, the nopal Opuntia fodder also provides excellent hydration.

Nopal Opuntia fodder can efficiently replace at least 60% of the livestock’s daily diet and is also an excellent water source for livestock in regions that suffer from extreme water scarcity. Unlike traditional fodders such as alfalfa, nopal Opuntia fodder can reduce livestock water requirements by 40-80%.

Regarding palatability, farmers’ experience and some experiments have shown that ruminant livestock prefers to consume the juicy nopal Opuntia fodder rather than conventional fodders.

The strategic solution to secure Livestock Fodder and Carbon Offset credits

Nopal Nutrition Company takes care of everything necessary to establish nopal Opuntia plantations destined to feed livestock, including the equipment and technical assistance to produce high-protein fodder from raw nopal Opuntia racquets.

Due to the rapid human population growth, climate change, and prolonged droughts, Feed Security is essential to sustain animal production and meet people’s increasing food demand.

By investing in establishing nopal Opuntia plantations in Mexico and other countries, livestock companies can sustainably secure enough fodder to feed their livestock during difficult times.

In addition to obtaining high-quality fodder with low production costs, the livestock companies can use the Carbon Offset credits generated by the nopal Opuntia plantations to offset the CO2 emissions and other Greenhouse Gases they produce during their usual productive activities.

Two convenient options:

1. Investing to establish nopal Opuntia plantations in Mexico.

For countries that suffer from adverse climatic conditions or a shortage of fertile farmland to cultivate nopal Opuntia, our company can help livestock companies worldwide to establish and manage nopal Opuntia plantations in Mexico.

Mexico is the land of the nopal Opuntia cactus and has vast areas of unproductive agricultural land suitable for establishing sustainable nopal Opuntia crops. The fertile desertic and semi-desertic regions of Mexico and its privileged climate allow us to harvest the best nopal Opuntia varieties and seeds all year round.

2. Investing to establish nopal Opuntia plantations internationally.

For countries that suffer from water scarcity and desertification due to climate change, our company can help livestock companies worldwide to establish sustainable nopal Opuntia plantations.

Nopal Nutrition provides everything necessary to establish nopal Opuntia crops “all over the world.” Including seeds, industrial equipment and technical assistance to obtain livestock feed.