How to Plant Forage Grass for High Yield? A Detailed Guide to Forage Grass Planting Techniques

Forage grass is a type of grass with very strong regenerative ability, rich in vitamins and trace elements, often used to feed livestock. At the same time, the quality and yield of forage grass affect the interests of the livestock industry. So how can you grow high-quality, high-yield forage grass? Let's find out together below!

Forage Grass Planting Techniques

The sowing methods for planting forage grass usually include broadcast sowing and drilling.

1. Broadcast sowing: Scatter the seeds directly onto the soil surface by hand, then lightly harrow to cover with soil.

2. Drilling: ① Same-row sowing: several kinds of forage grass seeds are sown in the same row; ② Alternate-row drilling: one or several kinds of forage grass are sown in another row.

How to Plant Forage Grass for High Yield

1. Selection of the forage area

First of all, the planting area for forage grass should be relatively vast. When selecting the forage area, you should choose a wide, flat area, and the soil should be relatively fertile, deep, and well-drained, capable of supporting the nutritional needs of dense growth and multi-season growth of forage grass. After determining the location of the forage area, the land in the forage area should be turned over once, which can make the soil more loose and also distribute the nutrients in the soil more evenly.

2. Selection of forage grass

There are very many types of forage grass. The main conditions for selection are good grass quality, high yield, the ability to be harvested for multiple seasons, strong vitality, high nutritional value for livestock, and improving the meat quality of livestock. Most of the time, legume crops are the main choice, and many other crops can also be selected, such as ryegrass, Mexican corn grass, king grass forage, sweet elephant grass forage, alfalfa, and many other varieties. However, fellow livestock farmers should also choose forage grass according to conditions such as the climate and soil of the region where their own farm is located.

Maintenance of Forage Grass

After fellow livestock farmers have selected the forage area and forage grass, they should choose the amount of forage grass according to the size of the forage area. After planting the forage grass in the soil, maintenance is required. Because the growth of forage grass needs to supply livestock for multiple seasons, fertilization of the forage grass should be increased during routine maintenance to increase the growth rate of the forage grass. In addition, in summer the weather is relatively hot and water evaporates vigorously, so watering of the forage grass should be increased. In addition, pests and diseases of the forage grass should be prevented and treated.

The Role of Forage Grass

Forage grass is the foundation for developing livestock and poultry production, especially the production of herbivorous livestock. Forage grass not only contains various nutrients essential for livestock, but also contains crude fiber that is particularly important for maintaining the health of ruminant livestock, which cannot be replaced by grain and other feed. High-quality forage can fully meet the nutritional needs of general livestock. If it is not during production or the fattening period, there is generally no need to supplement concentrate. Many experiments have shown that if the quality of forage is too low, no matter how much concentrate is supplemented, the cow's milk production shows a downward trend; however, when concentrate remains unchanged at 20% of the daily ration, replacing low-quality forage such as wheat straw and rice straw with high-quality pre-bloom alfalfa hay can increase daily milk production from 23.5kg to 36.2kg.

For cattle and sheep during the fattening period, when the proportion of concentrate remains unchanged, improving the quality of hay has a significant effect on livestock weight gain. Forage grass is the cheapest source of feed for livestock. Compared with grain crops, the cost of feeding livestock with forage grass is much lower. On the same area of land, under consistent production conditions, one mu of stylo can produce 1000-2000kg of hay. Calculated at its protein content of 15%, it can provide 150-300kg of pure protein, equivalent to 2-3 times that of other crops.

Through the above content, I believe everyone has gained a certain understanding of forage grass planting methods. In fact, planting forage grass is very easy, because forage grass has very strong vitality and also very good regenerative function, but if you want to grow high-quality, high-yield forage grass, you need to put in a little extra thought!