Differentiation between:

Grass	Weed
It is a forage species of the family Graminae having thin stemmed plants. Ex. Para grass.	It is a plant growing at a place where it is unwanted. Ex. Parthenium.

Legumes	Grasses
Family: Papilionaceae. They are dicots. They have broad leaves. They fix the atmospheric nitrogen. Eg. Cow pea.	Family: Graminae They are monocots. They have narrow leaves. They cannot fix the atmospheric nitrogen. Eg. Signal grass.

 

Importance of legumes and forages in the grassland:
Legumes are dicot plants belonging to family- Leguminaceae. They have root nodules which live symbiotically with bacteria and fix the atmospheric nitrogen. They are used as manures and for fodder purposes. Legumes provide a dense soil cover through their canopy which checks wind erosion, reduces weeds, water loss and evaporation. They are grown during crop rotation as they improve the soil nitrogen.

Forage production: Forages are edible herbage eaten by animals. The term forage is used for roughages.

 

Classification Of Fodders

Annual Non-Leguminous Fodder Crops

Crop	Oats	Teosinte	Maize	Jowar	Bajra
Scientific name	Avenna sativa	Euchlaena mexicana	Zea mays	Sorghum vulgare	Pennisetum typhoides
Origin	Western Europe	Mexico	Mexico	Africa	Africa, India
Feature	Erect, annual, good tillage, 1-2 m tall,  equilateral inflorescence.	Succulent, leafy annual grass, 2 ½ m tall, smooth leaves.	Tall, 1.5-6’ high, monoecious, quick growing, used for silage preparation.	Short lived, 0.5-3m high, annual crop, leaves are 30-100 cm long, 12 cm wide, best for silage.	1-2 ½ m high, solid stem, secondary and tertiary tillage, root in shallow, space is 20-30 cm.
Soil	Well drained clay to loamy soils.	Moist loam to clay loam	Loamy, fertile soil, alluvial, sandy soil	Heavy/black soil	Alluvial, red/black, sandy soil.
Spacing	20-25 cm rows	30-40 cm rows	Row-row: 25-30 cm Plant-plant: 10-15 cm	Plant-plant: 10-15 cm Depth: 2-5 cm Row-row: 25-30 cm	Row-row: 40 cm
Sowing	October- November	March-July	Kharif season	June-August	Rabi season
Varieties	Kent, Fulgham, Brunker 10, Weston-11	Sirsa, IGFRI, Teosinte-1.2, Maizainte, Rahuri	Yellow maize, African tall, Ganga 5,4,2,11	J set-3, MP Chari, JS30, S 1049, Salbani	A1/3, S-530, Grain Rajka, MB 72
Seed rate	75-80 kg/ha	40 kg/ha	45-50 kg/ha	45-50 kg/ha	-
Manure	Urea-65 kg/ha SP- 200 kg/ha	Urea- 55 kg/ha MOP- 40-50 kg/ha	1.5-25 tonnes FYM/ha	5 tonnes FYM/ha	FYM 20 tonnes per hectare
Harvesting	At 50% flowering	Boot storage	50-80 days- 1st 60-75 days- fodder	70 days- 1st 90 days- 2nd	Boot stage
Nutritive value	TDN- 72% CP-10.8% DM-3%		If zinc deficiency occurs apply ZnSo4	CP- 44 % CF-41.8% Mineral-9.4%	DM- 18-20% CP-10%

Leguminous  Perennial Fodder Crops

 

Fodder Trees

HAY MAKING:

            Preservation of green forage as hay is based on desiccation to halt biological processes to limit the action of microorganisms. This can be achieved by sun curing, shade drying or by mechanical dehydration. The object of hay making is to produce hay of high feeding value.

Characters of good quality hay:

• Early stage of maturity.
• Rapid reduction in the water.
•  Fairly green in colour.
• Stems are soft and pliable.
•  Free from mastiness and mold.
• Must have attractive fragrance which adds to its palatability.
• Free from weeds and stubble.

Methods of curing hay:
Hay crops are harvested early in the morning. Hay dries much more rapidly in the swath than in windrow and cocks. To make good quality hay, crop is allowed to dry in swath until it is partly cured and raked to windrows. Hay should be handled early in the morning before the due dries up to avoid shattering of leaves. Finally the hay is dried in cocks. Curing in cocks preserve the colour and carotene content. Baling and stacking (storing), is done when the moisture is reduced to 12-14%. During recent years, some farmers (even in North India) have adopted the plan of chopping hay as it is stored for improved feeding and reduced wastage.
Well cured hay is stacked/heaped on the ground over benches. The cross section of hay stack looks like 3/4 of globe shape. The volumes required for stacking one tonne of hay varies from 450 cft to 640 cft depending on the type of hay.
Chemical changes and losses during hay making:

• Action of plant enzymes:  In warm weather (dry and windy) the herbage will dry rapidly and the losses will be small. During early stages, the fructans are hydrolysed to fructose. If the rate of evaporation of moisture is slow, then considerable losses of hexoses occur which leads to increase in plant cell wall (fibre). In fresh cured crops, proteases present in plant cells rapidly hydrolyse proteins to peptides and amino acids and hydrolysis is followed by degradation of source amino acids. The degradation increases NPN and NH3-N. A number of devices and methods of treatment are used to speed up the drying process. Eg. conditioners crushers, rollers and crimpers. Traditionally rack drying or curing in tripods is the method followed. Curing in tripods will produce better quality of hay (DOM, DCP and ME).

• Action of micro-organisms: If drying is prolonged, changes may occur due to bacteria and fungi producing moldy hay. Such hay may also contain actinomycets responsible for allergic disease in man known as “farmer’s lung”.

 

• Oxidation: When herbage is dried in the field, a certain amount of oxidation occurs resulting in loss of pigments, bleaching of provitamin A i.e. carotene (from 150-200 to 220 mg/kg). Rapidly drying by tripod/barn drying reduce these losses. Sun curing enriches the Vitamin D2 content by irradiating ergocalciferol present in green forage.

• Leaching: Losses due to rain, can occur in partly dried hay causing loss of soluble minerals, sugars and nitrogenous constituents. May also cause growth of molds due to wet condition.

 

• Shattering losses (mechanical damage): Leaves lose moisture quickly than stem and become brittle and easily shattered by handling. Digestible nutrients are high in leaf and hence shattering reduces the nutritive value of hay.

• Stage of harvest: Leguminous hay is superior to green hay in protein and
  minerals. Lucerne is the common legume grown as a crop world over. Even cereal crops like paddy, ragi, oats, barley and wheat are converted to good quality hay.

 

• Changes during storage: After storage, if the moisture is more than 12-14%, chemical changes due to microbial and plant enzymes may occur. Respiration ceases at 40°C but the action of thermophilic bacteria may go on up to 72°C. Above this temperature chemical oxidation can cause further heating. The .accumulated heat may cause combustion. Prolonged heating may lead to formation of new linkages between peptide chain which reduces solubility and digestibility of proteins. Susceptibility of proteins to heat damage is greatly enhanced in the presence of sugars. The condensation of carbonyl group of reducing starch to sugar and amino group of amino acid or protein is called “Maillard Reaction”. This reaction is 9000 times faster at 70°C than at 10°C. Lysine is highly susceptible for Maillard reactions. The colour of the product is colourless at first and then turns to brown colour. Therefore, it is also called “Browning Reaction” in hays and other foods.

           In warm weather, storage losses are considerable. These changes are likely to increase cell wall constituents and reduce nutritive value. Overall losses during hay making can be as high as 19.3% of DM (13.7% field losses, 5.6% in bale and loss of digestible organic matter and DCP were both 27%).

 

SILAGE MAKING:

Silage is fermented fresh fodder obtained under anaerobic conditions. Fermentation under anaerobic conditions preserves the nutritive value and enhances the keeping quality of the fodder. The process of conserving green fodder in this way is termed “Ensiling”.

Qualities of good silage:

1. Greenish/yellowish brown in colour.
2. Pleasant, fruity odour.
3. Acidic taste with no butyric acid content.
4. pH of 3.5—4.2.
5. Ammoniacal nitrogen should be less than 10% of the total nitrogen.
6. At the time of harvest, the green fodder should have 30-35% dry matter.

Crops suitable for silage making:
Generally, the fodder crops rich in soluble carbohydrates and low to medium in protein content are ideally suitable for silage making. Thus, maize, jowar, bajra, guinea grass, para grass and napier grass are highly suitable for silage making. On the other hand, leguminous fodders which normally have high moisture and high crude protein and low soluble carbohydrates at the comparable growth stage are not considered fit for silage making.

Stage of harvesting:
Crops should be harvested between flowering and milk stage. Generally crops with thick stem are condensed in the form of silage, thin stemmed crops for suitable for making hay.

Types of silos:

1. Tower silos (Upright silos): They are permanent types constructed above the ground level and are relatively costly. The loss of dry matter in such silos is 5-10% only.
2. Pit or trench silos: Pit silos are less costly than the tower silos and are widely adopted for silage making. Here pits of desired size are dug in well drained soils.
3. Bunker silos: These silos are constructed below the surface of the ground and mainly consist of two retaining walls, 2.0-2.5 m high and with a slope of 2-3 cm so as to make the silage settle tightly against them. They should be always being built on firm soils.

Steps for making silage:

1. The fodder crops should be harvested and chaffed into small pieces of 2-3 cm at the proper stage of growth so that the moisture, protein and carbohydrate contents are optimum for anaerobic fermentation.
2. The silo pits must be filled very quickly (within 3-4 days) and the material must be compacted in such a way as to remove as much air as possible through constant pressing etiher with manual labour or with bullocks. Under anaerobic conditions there will be excessive respiration, over heating of ensiled material and the loss of carbohydrates.
3. The level of the chaffed material should be about 1-2 meters above the ground level. During the course of fermentation, the material will gradually settle down.
4. Urea at the rate of 3-4 kg/ tonne of the chaffed_material is mixed or sprinkled thinly and evenly on different layers. If the chaffed material happens to be very low in protein content especially in the case of cereal fodders.
5. The filled silo pits should be given dome like shape to prevent the entry of rain water. The unsiled material is then covered with a polythene sheet or tarpaulin from all sides so as to protect it from the direct rays of the sun and from rains. If polythene is not available, a thick layer of straw is put on the chaffed material from all the side and a thick layer of moist soil (10-12cm) is spread. The surface is covered in a mud plaster prepared by adding dung and water and red earth in suitable quantities to avoid the contact of atmospheric nitrogen.
6. The chaffed material ensiled by the above procedure is ready for feeding to the livestock after 2-3 months. A silo pit is opened and the material is removed daily for feeding by exposing as little surface of the ensiled material as possible.