Importance of Green Fodder for Feeding of Livestock
Anisha1, Manju2, Sheela Choudhary3 and Monika Karnani4
Department of Animal Nutrition
Post Graduate Institute of Veterinary Education and Research (PGIVER), Jaipur
1 PhD Scholar, Department of Animal Nutrition, PGIVER, Jaipur
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Nutrition, PGIVER, Jaipur
3 professor & Head, Department of Animal Nutrition, PGIVER, Jaipur
4Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Nutrition, PGIVER, Jaipur
Introduction
Green fodder plays important role in feed of milch animals, thereby providing required nutrients for milk production and health of the dairy animals. Green grasses can be chopped into pieces and used to make silage which can be stored for years and used as fodder in dry or drought seasons. Green fodder can also be grown by hydroponics system. Green forages have cooling effect on the animal body, more palatable contain easily digestible nutrients, provide fresh effectively utilizable nutrients in natural form and slightly laxative. The use of concentrates no doubt will give the greatest animal production per unit feed intake, but this may not be economical in countries like India where grains and concentrates are costly or in short supply. On the other hand animals yielding as high as 8 litres of milk can easily be maintained solely on green fodder without any concentrate.
Importance of green fodder
Green fodders are rich in nutrients and also the primary source of Vitamin ‘A’. Balanced feeding of green fodder increases immunity status of animals. Vitamin A is essential for respiratory tract health and better vision. It plays important role in maintenance and function of the mucous membrane. It is essential in reproduction functions e.g. conception, maintenance of pregnancy and shedding of placenta. It is essential in the gastro intestinal tract; deficiency of it causes diarrhoea, malabsorption of nutrients etc. It is essential for the urinary tract; deficiency of it causes stones in the kidney, ureter and bladder. During lactation 2000 I.U. of Vitamin ‘A’ is eliminated in every litre of milk. Green fodder reduces the cost of milk production through reduced feeding of concentrates. Microbes present in the green fodders plays a major role in its palatability and digestibility. It provides essential nutrients required for health, milk, meat production and reproduction of livestock. It is laxative in action. Green fodder is a cheap source of Vitamin ‘A’. It is also a source of minerals, Crude protein, Total digestible nutrients and dry matter. Green fodder also contain many oxidants and phytochemicals which plays important role in health, growth, production and reproduction.
Nutritive Value of Green Fodder
Green fodder are highly digestible (55 – 65%) mostly when harvested at a proper time. The crude protein may range from 3% in very mature forages to over 30% in young heavily fertilized grass on DM basis. Grass proteins are particularly rich in arginine, glutamic acid and lysine. Generally leguminous fodder contain 8-12% DCP and 45-60% TDN. It is advisable to supplement a ration containing a large amount of leguminous fodder with a limited quantity of wheat or rice bran, which is rich in phosphorus. The non-leguminous fodder are having 2.5% DCP and 45-60% TDN on dry matter basis. Green fodder contains 100 mg carotenes /Kg when compared with about 20 mg /Kg in silage. Carotene requirement of milch animals is 60 mg for production, 30 mg for pregnancy, for growth requirement is 11 mg carotene per 100 Kg live weight. Shrubs and leguminous trees are good source of digestible crude protein for farm animals. Tree leaves are useful as protein supplements to straws and low protein fodder. Tree leaves are good sources of calcium but low in phosphorus. The nutritive value of shrubs and tree species vary widely due to varying inherent nutritive value between species and within species because of climatic and edaphic conditions, cutting and grazing strategies and the soil in which the plant is growing.
Types of Green Fodder
A combination of soil types, climatic conditions and large number of forage species suited to different agro-ecological conditions in India. Forage production per unit area is a consequence of the interaction between genotypes and the environment. Selecting better varieties, seeds, application of fertilizers, and adoption of agronomic practices can lead to a significant increase in productivity. Fodder crops can be grouped as follows:
Cereal fodder
Cereals are grown for their edible starchy seeds known as ‘caryopsis’. Cereal fodders have a determinate growth habit and their herbage quality starts deteriorating after flowering. They have wider adaptability and variability in terms of growth, regeneration potential, yield and quality of herbage. Maize, sorghum, pearl millet, and oat provide energy-rich herbage to livestock.
Legumes fodder
Legumes by and large are indeterminate in growth and maintain quality traits over longer periods. They have high protein content and nitrogen fixing ability.
e.g. cowpea, stylosanthes, desmanthus, lucerne (alfalfa), berseem (Egyptian clover), hedge lucerne, cowpea (lobia) etc.
Grass fodder
These include grasses for pasture, grazing, and hay and can be either annual or perennial and either single cut or multi-cut.
e.g. hybrid napier, guinea grass, para grass, blue buffel (anjan) grass, Rhodes grass, dharaf grass, marvel grass, setaria grass etc.
Fodder trees and shrubs
Shoots or sprouts, tender twigs and stems of woody plants along with their leaves, flowers, fruits or pods can used to feed livestock. They are hardy and provide year-round fodder for use during lean periods. In dry periods, trees and shrubs remain green longer than grasses because of their deep root system. When grasses are scarce, fodder trees stay green and provide the required energy and protein. Trees can produce as much green fodder per unit area as agricultural fodder crops. e.g. subabul fodder, sesbania fodder- Agathi, gliricidia fodder, Moringa (drumstick)
Other crops: Root crops such as turnip, carrot and fodder beet, Brassica spp., and vetches are supplementary sources of feed. Due to early bulking capacity and short duration, they are often grown as catch crops.
Silage
Silage is the preserved green fodder in succulent form under air tight conditions. Ensiling is a process which involves the conservation of green fodder crops, grasses and the storage over long period. Good quality silage is yellowish-green in colour with a pleasant vinegar smell.
Excellent silage may be may be made from crops like Jowar, Maize, Bajra Oats and Barely. Among the perennial grasses large amounts of surplus fodder is available for silage making from the luxuriant growth of Hybrid Napier grass, Guinea grass, Para grass, Sudan grass and Rhode grass. Legumes like berseem, lucerne and cowpea are not suitable for silage making. However when mixed with non-legume crops in the right proportion, the mixture yields a well-balanced silage. Good silage has higher vitamin A content and better palatability than hay and other dry roughages. Cattle prefer silage to coarse, mature and less palatable green fodder. During ensiling the concentration of toxic constituents such as hydrocyanic acid, nitrate and oxalic acid is reduced drastically thus, the fodder having very high concentrations can be safely fed to animals after ensiling.
Hay
The drying and storing of high quality forage after harvesting at proper stage offer many advantages. It assures the supply of high digestible feed with highly protein and calorific values all the year round. Good quality hay is as nutritious as the green fodder and its helps in increasing milk production during period of fodder scarcity. Hay is made when the production of fodder is in excess of consumption. It fetches higher price and helps to increase milk production.
Hydroponics
Hydroponics is a technology of sprouting grains or growing plants without soil, but only with water or nutrient rich solution in greenhouses under controlled environment within a short period. The advantages of hydroponics observed by the farmers, there were increase in fat and Solid Non Fat content of the milk, improvement in health and conception rate of the dairy animals, reduction in cattle feed requirement by 25%, increase in taste (sweetness) of the milk, reduction in labour cost, requirement of less space and water, freshness and high palatability. The hydroponics green fodder is produced from forage grains (such as malt barley or oats), having high germination rate and grown for a short period of time generally seven days. As fodder sprouts are tender and young, the equivalent of fresh green grass with extremely high in protein and metabolisable energy. So that, they are highly palatable, highly nutritious and disease free animal food for all classes of livestock.
Conclusion
Green fodder play a vital role in sustainable agriculture by providing a source of high-quality livestock feed, improving soil health, increasing biodiversity and supporting the long-term productivity of farming systems. Proper harvesting and cutting can improve forage quality, yield and nutritional value, while also promoting regrowth and sustainable forage production.
