What is an example of a forage crop?
Harvesting Forage Crops Producers mechanically harvest forages and use them as stored feed. The 3 most basic forage harvest systems are dry hay, silage, and wet hay or baleage. Alfalfa is a forage crop that can yield more than 7 to 8 tons of hay equivalent per acre, if properly managed.
What plants are used for forage?
Perennial cool season grasses include fescues and ryegrass. Other cool season crops that might be used for feed include barley, oats, rye and wheat. Cool season forages, such as crested wheatgrass, initiate growth earlier in the spring.
What is the most common forage crop?
Annual Forage Barley, oat and triticale are the most common annual cereal forage and are commonly used as break crops between alfalfa stands. There are also small acreages of millet, annual ryegrass and annual pulses used for forage.
What are the uses of forage crop?
They are used to extend a growing season, as emergency feed, weed control, and utilize the land during times when grasse and legume production subside. Producers can often more fully utilize their labor, land, water, and growing resources by planting a miscellaneous forage.
Is Grass a forage crop?
Forage crops and pastures provide the bedrock to sustainable agriculture. Defined as the edible parts of plants, other than separated grain, that provide feed for grazing animals or that can be harvested for feeding (Allen et al. An international terminology for grazing lands and grazing animals. Grass and Forage Sci.
Is maize a forage crop?
… Maize is one of the most important cereal crops cultivated globally for food, feed, energy, and forage throughout the world (Klopfenstein et al., 2013) .
Is hay considered a forage crop?
Forage refers to plants consumed by animals, particularly livestock. Forage may be preserved by drying the plants to produce hay, it may be fermented to produce silage, and dried material is also compressed to produce compacted hay, pellets, and cubes .
Is grass a forage crop?
Why cultivation of forage crop is important?
Forage crops assist in achieving production targets for attributes such as growth or weight gain and to make up seasonal short falls between feed demand and supply. They can also play an important role in maintaining ground cover, preventing erosion, accumulating nitrogen in the soil and improving land condition.
Why maize is called miracle crop?
Maize is one of the most important cereal crops in the world agricultural economy both as food for man and feed for animals. It is a miracle crop. It has very high yield potential, there is no cereal on the earth which has so immense potentiality and that is why it is called queen of cereals.
Which pasture crops to plant?
Napier grass, also known as elephant grass is botanically called Pennisetum purpureum; it is a good pasture crop with high nutritive value.
What is the importance of forage in farming?
Forage crops provide the bedrock to sustainable agriculture. Defined as the edible parts of plants, other than separated grain, that provide feed for grazing animals or that can be harvested for feeding forages play an important role in beef cattle industry while also enhancing crop diversity, wildlife habitat, and soil ecosystem services.
What is silage crop?
Silage is food for cattle that is made by cutting a crop such as grass or corn when it is green and then keeping it covered.
What is forage production?
Forage production is oriented toward the production of forage provision, principally hay from a pure stand of alfalfa or from a mixture of different legumes such as vetch .
