Fodder Production and Grassland Management

WHY TREE FODDER?

• All the tropical and subtropical grasses, owing to their faster rate of growth during the monsoons provide grazing for the livestock, mainly in the monsoon and post-monsoon periods.
• With the advent of winter in most parts of the northern India, and owing to the lack of sufficient moisture in the soil in a ready available form, they enter dormancy.
• In the case of south Indian conditions, the grass land look dried or partially dried during the summer months and post monsoon periods thereby causing poor grass growth and grass land deterioration.
• During these periods, livestock gets only a meager part of the feed requirement through grazing. For such lean periods, tree-tops come to the rescue of the livestock-owners.
• The young leafy, succulent material, highly nutritive and rich in crude protein and minerals, serve as a concentrate, even if fed in small quantities along with other dried grasses and crop residues.
• The loppings of the trees obtained in spring and summer seasons also contain some substances which bring the animals quickly into the reproduction phase.
• Some of the important trees giving loppings and producing gum are Soobabul (Leucaena leucocephala) and Sesbania aegyptica and S. maculeata.lick