Forage crops: cereals, legumes. List of forage crops

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Agriculture is impossible to imagine without animal husbandry. Goat breeding, poultry breeding, horse breeding, cattle breeding (dairy, meat, dairy and meat), sheep breeding, rabbit breeding, pig breeding, beekeeping, dog breeding and other less common industries can be distinguished here. And if a person decides to engage in animal husbandry, then first he needs to think about how he will feed his farm. For this purpose, fodder crops of plants are quite suitable. They can be grown independently and grown so as not to spend money on the purchase of animal products. It is about plants that can become food that will be discussed now.

Let's start with the most famous ones.

Forage crops. List of plants covered in the article

• Forage watermelon.
• Forage gourd.
• Fodder squash.
• Rye.
• Barley.
• Oats.
• Soya.
• Lupin.

Melons

Forage gourds are, first of all, watermelon, zucchini and pumpkin.

Forage watermelon

This is an annual plant of the familypumpkin. The mass of its fruit is from 10 to 30 kg. These fruits are fed to livestock in fresh or ensiled form. Feed watermelon contains proteins (0.3 kg per 100 kg of product), carbohydrates that are easily digestible, i.e. glucose, fructose and sucrose, folic acid, pectin (0.36-0.75 kg per 100 kg of product), as well as vitamins D, A, C, B and iron.

Forage gourd

This plant also belongs to the gourd family and is an annual. The fruit weighs up to 30 kg.

The fruits of this plant have a large amount of sugar (12 kg per 100 kg of product), proteins (0.4 kg per 100 kg of fruit), vitamins E, PP, C, and provitamin A.

This product is great for cows, pigs and chickens. In the former, it increases the fat content of milk and increases its quantity, while the latter, when fed on pumpkin, begin to lay more eggs.

Fodder zucchini

Melons and fodder crops are also zucchini. They ripen earlier than the plants listed above, which is their undoubted plus. What's more, they can even be fed unripe to animals, after being steamed or chopped.

Zucchini - melon fodder crops that contain proteins in the amount of 0.7-1 kg per 100 kg of product. These substances are found not only in the fruits, but also in the tops of the plant (0.8 kg per 100 kg).

Fodder grains

Rye, barley and oats primarily belong to this group. All grain forage crops havea number of shortcomings. This is a low content of calcium, which is necessary for the normal development of the animal, as well as the relatively low digestibility of the proteins contained in the grains.

Rye

In 100 kg of the grain of this plant contains 10.1 kg of proteins, 2.3 kg of fiber, 1.9 kg of fat, 66.1 kg of BEV (nitrogen-free extractive substances), 1.8 kg of ash, as well as 16 kg of water.

Rye animals do not like to eat in large quantities. This is due to the tart taste that it has. Also, eating too much rye can lead to digestive disorders. This is especially true for freshly harvested grains. Therefore, in the diet of cattle or pigs, the amount of rye eaten should not exceed 30% of the total food.

In addition, one should take into account the factor that the grains of this plant contain a rather small amount of digestible proteins. This should be compensated by the presence of protein-rich foods in the diet, such as fodder legumes.

Barley

100 kg of barley grains contain 10.8 kg of protein, 4.8 kg of fiber, 2.2 kg of fat, 65.6 kg of BEV, 2.8 kg of ash and 13 kg of water.

This plant has a lot of flaws. These include a low content of calcium, phosphorus, vitamins, as well as an insufficient content of proteins. The amount of fiber, on the contrary, is increased, so this food should only be used in combination with products that are low in this substance (wheat,corn).

However, despite all the negative aspects, barley is widely used as feed for farm animals, as it helps to improve the quality of meat and milk.

You can give the grains of this plant to young piglets in a fried form, and to pigs - in a grind. Dairy cows are often fed barley mash or flour.

Oats

100 kg of oats contains 9.1 kg of protein, 10.4 kg of fiber, 4.9 kg of fat, 57.3 kg of BEV, 4 kg of ash and 13 kg of water.

The film of oat grains contains a very high amount of fiber, which impairs the digestibility of this product.

This feed is considered standard for horses. In the diet of cattle and pigs, it can be 40%, poultry - 30%. However, it should not be given to dairy cows during oil production, nor to pigs in the last fattening stage.

Legumes as animal feed

Food legumes known to everyone are soybeans and lupins.

The grains of each of these plants have a huge amount of protein. This is especially true for soy.

The chemical composition of beans is something like this. For 100 kg of soybeans, there are 33.6 kg of proteins, 5.7 kg of fiber, 17.4 kg of fat, 26.8 kg of BEV, 4.6 kg of ash and 11 kg of water. 100 kg of lupine contains 27.5 kg of protein, 5.3 kg of fat, 12.8 kg of fiber, 35.8 kg of BEV, 2.7 kg of ash and 14 kg of water.

Forage crops, the list of which is given above, are valuable not only for their high protein content, but also for a large number ofamino acids, B vitamins and ascorbic acid, calcium, phosphorus, copper, iron and zinc.

But despite their nutritional value and benefits, the percentage of legumes in the diet should not exceed 25%, as an excessive amount of this product causes problems with the gastrointestinal tract, including bloating, and can also cause miscarriage in a pregnant female.

The most common and commonly used forage legume is the soybean. It has a large amount of proteins that are close to animals, as well as amino acids that provide a normal metabolism in livestock.

It is recommended to use these beans as bird food, only after subjecting them to heat treatment. However, it should be noted that the use of too high temperatures in this case leads to a decrease in the quality of the product. Cattle can be fed raw soybeans.

Lupin comes in three varieties: white, yellow and blue. Yellow and white varieties are sweet, they differ from the blue ones in a lower content of alkaloids (0.002-0.12 kg per 100 kg of product, in contrast to 3.87 kg in blue). Yellow lupine has the highest amount of proteins among the three species. Also, all varieties of this plant contain essential amino acids that the animal body does not produce on its own. These grains also contain vitamins and minerals.

The best option is to use lupine beans as feed forpigs, in the diet of which there is a lot of potatoes. The disadvantage of this feed crop can be considered a high fiber content, which should be taken into account when calculating the amount of this feed in the diet of farm animals. In the menu of young piglets, lupine beans should make up no more than 18-20% of all food, adult pigs - no more than 12%.

When deciding to introduce this food into the diet of an animal, one should also pay attention to the fact that due to the content of alkaloids in it, it gives milk and butter a bitter taste. Also, the intake of these substances in large quantities can cause disorders of the digestive system. These negative phenomena can be prevented by pretreating the beans. To get rid of alkaloids, lupine grains should be soaked in cold water, then steamed for an hour and rinsed again. Processed food must be used within 24 hours or it will spoil.

However, the alkaloid-related deficiencies of this plant are now being addressed by breeding varieties whose grains are almost free of these substances.