ANN 111: Principles of Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology (2+1)

Grasses

NUTRITIONAL DIS ORDERS ASSOCIATED WITH GRASSES AND LEGUMES

• Important points have been listed in the box for ready reference. Readers are advised to view power point presentation for easy understanding. This chapter will enable you to manage your farm with the available roughages as well as to understand the options available to cultivate appropriate fodder to meet the demand of the farm.

• Grasses are the best and cheapest bulk feed for the livestock.
• The grasses are the most widely distributed herbaceous plants, either annuals or perennials and are more than 10,000 species.
• In the natural pastures and grazing area of the country, different kinds of native grasses such as Bracharia, Anjan, Hariyali, Giant star, Marvel, Spear, etc. are found to grow under rainfed conditions.
• Under irrigated conditions, grasses like Napier Bajra hybrids, Guinea grass and Deenanath grass are suitable for cultivation.
• Non legume forages contain 5-10 % crude protein, 0.3-0.5 % calcium and 0.2-0.3 % phosphorus while legume forages like Cow pea, Leucerne and Sesbania contain 20-25% crude protein, 1.4-1.6 % calcium and 0.1-3 % phosphorus on dry matter basis.

	Non-Legumes	Legumes
C.P	5-10%	20-25%
Ca	0.3-0.5%	1.4-1.6%
P	0.2-0.3%	0.1-3%