Why Animals Eat Potatoes : Potatoes

What Animals Eat Potatoes? 11 Animals That Eat Potatoes – Animal

Potato plants are an important food source for many predators, including voles, wild boars, and birds like thrushes, sparrows, owls, and other species.Insects, including caterpillars, beetles, ants, and bees, also feed on the tubers.They grow underground and are very hard to detect, which makes them easy prey for many different animals.You’ll find out what animals are capable of eating potatoes in this article.Voles Wild Boars Field Mice Raccoons White-Tailed Deer Wireworms Flea Beetles Potato Tuberworm White Grubs Birds Squirrels.Yet beware… don’t leave your spuds out overnight as they will come back to feed on them again the next day.Field mice are rodents that live in the wild in North America.They’ll eat other vegetables too, such as carrots, lettuce, radishes, beans, and even onions.So if you have unguarded trash or compost containers, raccoons will be frequent visitors.So make sure all your trash is tightly sealed or else set the container in a place where it is difficult for them to access it.They may even be found eating your garden potatoes if you don’t pick them regularly.If you leave your potatoes to grow, they’ll often develop a nice bushy shape.If you’ve got a lot of deer in your area, they may eat your entire crop.They’re very common in organic gardens as they love the soil in which they feed.These little beetles (which can grow up to 1/2 inch long) love to munch on potatoes.You see, if you have too many potato beetles, they will devour all the available foliage and stop growing.So by introducing flea beetles into your crop, you can actually stimulate the growth of the plant.They are found in many parts of the world and can be seen feeding on tubers in gardens and fields.White grubs have a very specific diet which consists mainly of decaying wood.You may see white grubs in your garden eating around damaged or diseased wood.White grubs are one of the few insects that can digest cellulose, the main ingredient in wood.These are plants you grow specifically for the purpose of feeding wildlife.This is because birds are omnivores, meaning that they eat a range of foods.Potatoes are an excellent source of starch, which is what birds use to make their gizzards.That’s why they are a common culprit when people complain about their bird feeders being raided.These foods are filling and nutritious, but they can also be poisonous if consumed in high quantities.As long as the leaves and fruits remain on the plants, they should be safe to consume. .

Mice & Voles Eating Your Potatoes? Here's How To Stop Them

Because voles can live in colonies of hundreds of individuals, they can cause a lot of damage to a bed of potatoes, but catching them in the act is difficult.The vole is a small animal that looks a lot like a mouse with an elongated snout and a short, stubby tail, and it feeds on lots of different seeds, tubers, bulbs and other plant materials, unlike moles, which are insectivores that tunnel beneath the lawn, feeding on grubs and earthworms.If you discover bite marks that look like two short, side-by-side lines carved into the flesh of your potato tubers, voles or mice are probably to blame.If you discover mice and voles eating your potatoes when you dig the vegetables up at harvest time, there’s not much you can do because the growing season has ended.Mouse or rat traps should be baited with peanut butter and set in the potato patch at dusk.Continue to set the traps every evening until you go four or five nights in a row without catching a vole or mouse.If you don’t want to trap and kill the voles or mice, you can also “screen” them out of a raised bed planting of potatoes. .

Can Dogs Eat Potatoes?

From the UC Davis School of Medicine: “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently issued an alert about reports of canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs eating certain pet foods containing peas, lentils, other legume seeds, or potatoes as main ingredients.While the most common cause of DCM is genetic, on rare occasions other factors can also result in the condition, particularly in breeds that are not frequently affected.”.The humble potato — the makings of french fries, hash browns, tater tots, and many other essential comfort foods.A dog’s body is designed to get most of its nutrients from animal protein, so if you decide to feed your pup baked or boiled potatoes, it should be done in moderation.Here at the AKC, we field many queries from anxious dog owners about what is and isn’t safe for their canine companions to eat.

Sweet potatoes as animal feed in developing countries

Many developing countries are under increasing pressure to make more effective use of available resources in the agricultural sector both to satisfy the growing demand for livestock products and to raise rural incomes by generating additional value added through processing.Interest in the potential for a expanded use of sweet potatoes as animal feed in developing countries has arisen in this context.Sweet potato is among the five most important food crops in developing countries in terms of total production (Horton 1988).Although the sweet potato Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam is of New World origin, over 90% of developing country production is produced in Asia; 85% in China alone (Table 1).While sweet potato production and area planted in Africa practically doubled over the last three decades, they remain less than 5% and 15% respectively of developing country totals.Sweet potato production, area and yield in developing countries by regions, 1961–88 Region 1961/63 1986/88 Producta (000t) Areaa (000 ha) Yielda (t/ha) Producta (000t) Areaa (000 ha) Yielda (t/ha) AFRICAb 3,464 646 5.4 6,264 1,202 5.2 (sub-saharan) 3,381 642 5.3 6,193 1,199 5.2 3.6% 5.1% 70.9% 4.9% 13.3% 37.0% ASIAd 86,853 11,595 7.5 116,261 7,481 15.5 92.9% 92.2 100.8% 92.7% 83.3% 111.3% (China) 78,694 10,333 7.6 108,063 6,306 17.1 81.2% 80.3% 101,1% 86.2% 70.2% 122.8% LATIN AMERICAc 2,787 342 8.2 2,284 298 7.7 3.0% 2.7% 109.8% 1.8% 3.3% 54.8% TOTAL 93,105 12,583 21.1 124,809 8,981 28.4.In a number of countries, output and area have fallen (e.g. China, Indonesia, Philippines, Brazil) since the mid-1970's (Table 3).Sweet potato output expanded rapidly during the last decade in various locations including Vietnam, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Korea and Madagascar (Table 3).Rapid population growth resulting in increased pressure on farm land was a prime factor explaining this trend in some countries e.g. Rwanda (see von Braun et al.

1988) while economic and political disruptions of other agricultural activities probably contributed to this growth in other countries e.g. Vietnam (Mackay 1989).Changes in utilization (%) of sweet potato in developing countries, 1986–88a 1961–63 1973–75 1986–88 Food 77.6 70.2 52.4 Feed 11.7 19.0 36.1 Processing 4.5 4.8 5.4 Seed 0.3 0.2 0.2 Waste 5.9 5.8 5.8.Sweet potato use for animal feed is, with a few notable exceptions, less than 10% of output in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.Amongst the 15 largest producers, FAO statistics indicate sweet potato use for animal feed is 40% of total output in China, 35% in Brazil, 30% in Madagascar, 17% in the Republic of Korea and 5% or less in the remaining 11 countries (Table 4).Explanations for this sharp increase include growth in cereal production, meaning less sweet potato is needed to supplement cereal consumption; rising demand for meat products (principally pork) for which sweet potatoes serve as a feed component, and changes in government policy e.g. the introduction of the “responsibility system” which permits the sale of agricultural surpluses for profit.Furthermore, an EEC bilateral agreement allowed China to export up to 600,000t of dried sweet potato chips to member countries duty free during the 1980s (see Calpe, 1991).It also should be noted that estimates of “processing” or “waste” as a percentage of sweet potato production are difficult to interpret.On the other hand, some production is lost due to physical or autolytic processes, microbiological attack, pest damage, and so on (see NAS 1978).But little quantitative information is available other than those based on inferences of an a priori type (i.e. sweet potatoes are perishable, therefore a certain percentage of the harvest is lost) or desktop “guesstimates”.Unfortunately, information about the exact nature, extent and evolution of these practices is handicapped by a lack of knowledge about the crop generally and the use for animal feed specifically.With that observation as a caveat, the meager evidence available about present practices suggests that sweet potato is most commonly used as animal feed on the farm itself.With certain notable exceptions, animal feed currently constitutes a minor share of the total utilization of sweet potato production.Roots for pigs and vines for cattle are the most commonly cited forms of sweet potato utilization as animal feed in Asia (Table 5).Uncooked roots are fed to pigs in China, parts of Indonesia (Irian Jaya), Korea, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, and Vietnam (see CIP 1989).Slicing, then sundrying of the roots is a well-known procedure for production of pig feed from sweet potatoes in Taiwan (Calkins 1979; Tsou et al.1989).In China, sweet potato roots are also ground by various types of smallscale machines and used to make starch for noodles (see Tang et al. 1990).After draining off the starch, the remaining pulp is then used as is, fermented, dried, or stored to make pig feed.These parts of the plant are fed as is or after ensilage to cattle in Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia (Java), and the Philippines (see CIP 1989; Mackay et al. 1989).They also serve as a form of pig feed in Papua New Guinea, Vietnam and are fed to poultry in China.In Bangladesh, India, and Indonesia, vines and/or foliage serve as a principal source of animal feed from sweet potato production.The limited reports suggest that nearly all roots are for human consumption with only damaged ones being fed for livestock e.g.

Rwanda (see Ndamaga 1988).Vines and foliage from the sweet potato plant are fed principally to cattle in a number of countries however (see CIP 1988).In Egypt, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Uganda vines and/or foliage are utilized as green fodder for cattle principally, but also for pigs and other small animals (Table 6).Two reasons why this practice is not more widespread are : i) farm households eat the vines in boiled form as a source to put on the basic staple (e.g. in rice in Sierra Leone); ii) farmers willl leave vines in the field to improve soil fertility.Sweet potatoes roots, vines and foliage are used for animal feed in a number of Latin America countries (Table 6).As the crop is typicallky grown on small farms, often for household consumption, Argentina, ]Brazil and Peru are notable exceptions, statistics on utilization patterns for animal feed are clearly guesses.An estimated 35% of sweet potato production is used for animal feed in Brazil (Table 6), about 15% in the Dominican Republic (Baez 1988).This percentage is negligible for other countries in the region except in those cases where total sweet potato production in absolute terms is itself insignificant.In Argentina, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic in particular, fodder from sweet potatoes has served as an emergency supply of cattle feed for farmers in periods of drought or during the dry seasons (see Boy et al. 1988; Franca 1988; Baez 1988).The vines and foliage are used in unprocessed form in every instance except in the Dominican Republic where they are first ground and then mixed with sugar cane by-products before being to fed to livestock.Improvements in yield, dry matter content, and digestiblity of the crop should make sweet potato incresingly more trractive as a source of animal feed.; Moreover, average yeilds in China (17t/ha) are fifty percent or less of what is commonly achieved on experiment stations in developing countries.As pressure mounts on farmers to raise productivity, the potential gains to be made from improved sweet potato varieties and modern inputs should be more widely realized.Clearly the potential is there to raise the sweet potato's utility for porocessing by incorporating varieties with higher dry-matter content into the material available to growers in developing countries.Sweet potato's potential for animal feed will also depend on socioeconomic factors including: i) growth in population and incomes, ii) growth in demand for cereals for human consumption and for animal products, and iii) the capacity of a given country to cover food deficits through imports.Growth in population can affect the prospects for sweet potato utilization as animal feed in various ways.Population growtgh in the countryside may induce farmers away from expanded cereal production to more high valued crops so as to maintain incomelevels.Growth in the demand for cereals for human consumption and livestock products will also influence the prospects for sweet potato use as animal feed.Should population growth rates fail to decline, the prospects for meeting domestic food requirements with local supplies become more problematic.Many countries have witnessed dramatic reversals of governemnt policy as regards food and feed imports over the last few years partly as a result of chages in world markets, the burden of accumulated debt, or in an effort to create more oppurtunities for domestic agricultural production.A number of countries in Asia (e.g.China, phillippines) and to lesser extent in Latin America (e.g. Brazil, Peru, Dominican Republic) would appear to meet these criteria.Unfortunately, a detailed assessment of the marketing for sweet potatoes as animal feed in these countries is currently not availble.Situación del Cultivo de la Batata o Camote en el Perú.Paper prepared for the FAO Expert consultation on the Use of Roots, Tubers, Plantain and Bananans for Animal Feed.Indigenous Technologies and Recent Advances in Sweet Potato Production, Utilization and Marketing in Papua New Guinea.Von Braun, J., de Harn H., and Blanken J.1988.Commercialization of Agriculture under Conditions of Population Pressure: A Study in Rwanda on Production, Consumption, and Nutritional Effects, and their Policy Implications.Vgn Islands Vanuatu Malawi Guatemala Mongolia Lesotho St.Pierre & Miquelon Qatar Sao Tome & Principe Brit.<10,000 t Mauritius * Cayman Islandso *Guamo * Zimbabwe 1 Montserrato * Bahraino * Reunion 2 Bermudao * Maldiveso * Gabon 2 Trinidad & Tobago * Singaporeo * Swazilando 2 Suriname * Brunei Darussalamo * Mauritania 2 St.

Kitts & Neviso * Niueo * Togo 3 Antigua & Barbudao * Hong Kongo * Somalia 4 Grenadao * French Polynesiao 1 Sudan 7 El Salvador * Macauo 1 Senegal 7 Bahamaso * Cook Islandso 2 Honduras 2 Saint Luciao 1 Fiji 2 Pac.Is.(Tru.Tr.)o 3 New Caledoniao 4 Dominicao 2 Barbadoso 3 Martiniqueo 3 Ecuador 5 Venezuela 7 Chile 7 Guadeloupeo 8 St. Vincent 8 Grenadnso Puerto Ricoo 8 <50,000 t Congoo 10 Bolivia 10 Pakistan 16 Cape Verdeo 11 Jamaicao 24 Tongao 18 Cote d'Ivoire 12 Dominican Republic 39 Burma 26 Sierra Leone 14 Comoroso 13 Malaysiao 37 Liberiao 18 Kampuchea Democ.o 40 Zambia 23 Solomon Islands 50 Burkina Faso 27 Benin 36 Equatorial Guineao 36 Niger 37 Chad 43 <250,000 t Mozambique 54 Mexico 51 Sri Lanka 87 Mali 57 Uruguay 60 Thailand 108 Egypt 71 Paraguay 105 Laos 124 Guinea 90 Peru 129 Ethiopia 138 Cameroon 151 Angola 180 > 250,000 t Nigeria 260 Cuba 270 Papua New Guinea 471 Tanzania 332 haiti 373 Korea DPR 492 Zaire 373 Argentina 434 Bangladesh 573 Madagascar 467 Brazil 734 Korea Rep 596 Kenya 523 Philippines 711 Burundi 619 India 1,385 Rwanda 940 Viet Nam 1,913 Uganda 169 Indonesia 2,087 8 China 108,063.