Forage grass: goat's rue, clover, alfalfa, sweet clover. Useful properties, cultivation

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

Annual or perennial fodder grasses are valuable agricultural crops grown for animal feed. They have a good yield, nutritional value and are very important and versatile in strengthening the forage base. They are grown for green fodder, silage, haylage, hay, grass meal and as pasture crops.

Forage grass is a valuable feed because it contains proteins, carbohydrates, fiber, various vitamins and minerals, which are so necessary for the normal development and growth of animals. Its economic importance depends on nutritional value, productivity, livestock consumption, and distribution in different regions.

Forage Grass Types

More than 80 species of this crop are cultivated in our country, and about 5000 grow on natural lands.

All forage grasses are divided into 4 groups:

• legumes;
• cereals;
• sedge;
• forbs.

By durationfodder grass can be annual and perennial.

Family of leguminous herbs

Bean forage grass is found in small quantities on the fodder lands of our country, but it has rather high fodder properties: the culture is rich in protein and is perfectly eaten by animals. The most widespread are clover (red, white, pink), horned bird, yellow alfalfa, meadow rank, etc.

Grass Grass Family

This group is distributed in almost all zones (except the desert) and provides most of the pasture forage or hay (often up to 80-90%). Most cereals have a high fodder value, especially in their young state. During the hay harvest during drying, these grasses keep their leaves well, which are the most valuable parts. The most widespread cereal crops such as feather grass, couch grass, spicy, etc.

Sedge fodder grasses

This group of herbs includes plants from the rush and sedge families. These crops are considered of low nutritional value and are rather poorly eaten by animals, but in the northern regions of the forest zone they often make up the bulk of hay (water sedge, slender sedge, and others). And in the desert and semi-desert, many sedges are a valuable fodder plant.

Forbs

This group includes all other botanical plant families. Forbs - meadow forage grasses, which can sometimes make up to 60-70% of the herbage. The main part ofthey are of great economic importance. Plants from this group are more nutritious than cereals, but most of them are much worse eaten by animals due to their bitter taste, thorniness, pubescence, etc. A small amount of herbs (mantle, dandelion, cumin, etc.) in the herbage (up to 20%) - a desirable admixture, since it helps to improve the mineral composition of the feed and its palatability by livestock.

A large number of herbs of this group in the herbage for haymaking is highly undesirable, because:

• it crowds out more valuable legumes and cereals;
• among the forbs there are many weeds (field bindweed, yellow thistle, etc.) and poisonous (poisonous ranunculus, hellebore, poisonous milestones, aconite, etc.) plants.

Forage annual grasses

The peculiarity of annual fodder grasses is that their development cycle ends within a year, and they die off. It is sown to obtain greens for top dressing, for silage, as well as to obtain concentrated feed. Annual grasses give high yields of green mass, have a fairly high nutritional value, and have a short growing season.

Due to the fact that the cutting maturity of plants occurs in about 50-60 days, these crops are indispensable in intermediate crops, in a busy fallow.

Annual grasses are divided into two types:

• legumes;
• bluegrass (cereals).

Annual fodder legume crops are sown in early spring. The most valuable plants - spring vetchand winter, rank, fodder lupine, seradella.

Grain annual grasses are more thermophilic, they are planted in well-warmed soil for sowing early spring crops. The most valuable are: Sudanese grass, mogar, sorghum, annual ryegrass, chumiza, African millet and others.

Forage perennial grasses

Perennial fodder grasses are herbaceous seed plants with a lifespan of more than one year. Raised for livestock feed.

The culture includes more than 50 plant species. They are sown most often in the form of a grass mixture, which has a positive effect on the quality of forage and soil fertility. They also sow clean crops and create cultivated pastures outside crop rotations.

In the first year of life, perennial grasses develop quite slowly, overgrow with weeds and can produce a low yield. Therefore, it is recommended to sow them after cereals or row crops, in soils fertilized with compost or manure.

Forage perennial grasses are also divided into:

• Bluegrass (cereals). The most common: timothy, awnless brome, perennial ryegrass, wheatgrass, high ryegrass, meadow bluegrass, multicut ryegrass, rootless couch grass, cocksfoot, white bent grass, meadow and red fescue, foxtail and others.
• Bean herbs: alfalfa, white clover, red clover, pink clover, sainfoin, horned lotus.

To create a highly productive herbage, it is necessary to comply with the main agricultural practicescultivation.

Goat's Rue

Goat's rue is a perennial herbaceous plant of the legume family. The stem is branched, erect, usually reaches a height of 1 m, and on fertile soils it can grow up to 1.5 m. The root system has a tap type, grows up to 80 cm in depth. On the main root, several offspring are formed. First, they develop horizontally up to 30 cm, then sprout and form new stems.

The leaves of the plant are pinnate, petiolate, up to 30 cm long.

Goat's rue is a fodder grass with pale purple or blue flowers, similar to bells, which are collected in inflorescence brushes. On each stem, 3-5 pieces can be formed. Fruiting occurs in September-October. Beans are small (2-4 cm long), dark orange, almost brown, 3-7 seeds in fruits. Goat's rue is characterized by rather slow growth, and if it does not grow to 20 cm in height until autumn, its harvesting is most often transferred to the next year.

Seeds are able to maintain germination qualities up to 8 years.

Goat's rue is a fairly frost-resistant plant that can tolerate even very harsh winters.

2 types of this plant are known: Oriental goat's rue (forage grass) and medicinal.

Annual ryegrass

Very valuable fodder plant, providing benign green fodder and hay. The green mass contains 3.2% protein, 2.3% protein, 8% fiber. Livestock willingly eats it, in addition, it is a good top dressing fordomestic birds. Hay of annual ryegrass is not inferior in nutritional properties to hay from mogar, Sudanese grass and other cereal crops. Animals eat straw well. The annual yield of hay is about 7-8 t/ha, green mass - up to 20-30 t/ha, seeds - 0.5-0.6 t/ha.

Annual ryegrass has a high afterburner, gives 2-3 cuts during the growing season. After the second cut, the growing aftermath can be used as pasture forage until the deepest autumn, as it tolerates small autumn frosts well.

Donnik

This is an unpretentious annual or biennial legume that can grow in the poorest, sandy, stony and clay soils, as well as in those areas where there is no fertile layer. The melilot plant is not afraid of saline and alkaline soils, but it does not tolerate acidic swampy and floating heavy lands, with a close location of groundwater. The root system is powerful and well developed, thanks to which this grass is able to give a good harvest in arid zones, where other forage crops burn out. With enough rain, the green mass yield can reach up to 7-8 t/ha.

The sweet clover plant is successfully used not only for food, but also for green manure.

Seeds germinate at temperatures from 2 to 50 °C, seedlings are able to withstand frosts of -6 … -5 °C, and some frost-resistant biennial varieties are not afraid of frost up to 40 °C.

Clover is a valuable high-protein fodder plant, which nutritionally is not inferior to clover, alfalfa and sainfoin. It can often be found in meadows,wastelands, roadsides.

This plant is drought-resistant, frost-resistant and resistant to diseases and pests, suitable for greenery, ensiling and hay making. It can be grown both in grass mixtures and independently.

White Clover

Grows well on sandy, loamy, slightly acidic or neutral soils. In the first year, grass (clover) is able to bloom and produce seeds. In the second year of life, full development occurs. In one place it can grow up to 9-10 years.

Grass (clover) moisture and sun-loving, frost-resistant. It grows best in regions with a humid cool climate where there is no drought.

Sown white clover is an excellent fodder plant containing a lot of protein. Trampling by cattle during grazing does not depress the plant, but, on the contrary, contributes to its better growth. Planting this legume improves soil fertility. Its inclusion in the mixture with timothy grass, ryegrass and other plants improves the fodder quality of pasture grass - the content of protein, phosphorus, fat, calcium, potassium increases and reduces the level of fiber. The yield of green mass in the meadows is about 60-120 c/ha, hay is about 18-35 c/ha, seeds are 3.0-5.0 c/ha.

Alfalfa

This is a perennial fodder grass of the legume family. It is used both as green fodder and for producing high quality hay. Alfalfa seeds are also used for medicinal purposes. The culture improves the structure of the soil, and also enriches the soil with nitrogen, destroys weeds. Differs in high drought resistance and winter hardiness. In herbage can keep up to 10 years or even more. Grows back slowly after mowing.

This fodder grass prefers chernozems, forest-steppe loams, brown and chestnut gray soils and other lime-rich soils. Alfalfa does not grow well in waterlogged and heavy clay soils.

This plant contains a lot of vitamins and protein. It is well digested by herbivores. Alfalfa seeds are sown both in pure form and in the form of a mixture.