What crops have high nutritional value for feeding cattle and sheep?
In rural areas, cattle, sheep and chickens are the most commonly raised livestock and poultry by farmers, but because of their large feed intake and the fact that many are mainly fed on pasture grass, if you want to raise cattle and sheep well, you need to understand feed combinations, sowhen raising cattle and sheep, what crops are good to feed? Which ones have high nutritional value?
Summer green feed
To provide summer green feed, the best choice is to plant pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), followed by Sudan grass, sorghum-Sudan grass, and others. Pearl millet is drought-resistant, tolerant of high temperatures, and has extremely strong regrowth capacity. It can be cut 3~4 times a year, and fresh grass yield per mu can reach more than 5000 kg.
1. Pearl millet
Pearl millet is a crop that is drought-resistant, heat-tolerant, and salt-alkali tolerant, but not waterlogging-tolerant. Drilling row spacing is 60-65 cm, plant spacing 20-30 cm; square hole sowing with both row and plant spacing of 70 cm can also be used, leaving 2-3 basic seedlings per hole. Pearl millet is very sensitive to fertilizer response. After seedling establishment, apply chemical fertilizer containing 45 kg of nitrogen per hectare. On medium-fertility plots, about 3000 kg of grain can be harvested per hectare.
For grain protein content, most varieties are higher than wheat, rice, corn, and sorghum. It is 8.3-20.9%, with an average of 16%.
Pearl millet grain is used as food. Pearl millet is dry-milled into flour or wet-milled into paste to make cakes or bread as well as other forms of pastries. Its stalks are used as livestock feed, fuel, or building material for thatched houses. In developed countries and regions, the grain is mainly used as poultry and livestock feed or filler.
2. Sudan grass
Grazing use: Sudan grass pasture can be grazed and eaten by cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, and other livestock, with no worry of bloat. Generally, the first grazing is at the early jointing stage; the second at the booting stage; the third at the heading stage; the fourth before or after frost, until all is eaten.
Green cutting and green feeding: Sudan grass is a high-quality green, succulent feed for horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, rabbits, and fish, and can be cut in stages for feeding. Generally, when plant height is 50-70 cm, it can be cut for the first time, and thereafter cut once every 20-30 days. If young tender fresh Sudan grass is used to feed pigs, it can account for 1/3-1/2 of the daily ration, fed as pulp or crushed; for cattle, each head needs 30-40 kg of fresh grass per day; sheep and rabbits can be fed whole or cut short; when feeding fish, crushing the fresh grass before feeding gives better results.
3. Sorghum-Sudan grass
The crude protein and crude fat contents of sorghum-Sudan grass as percentages of fresh weight are 2.49% and 0.6% respectively, making it good feed for cattle, horses, sheep, and fish. It can be used for green feeding or silage, and can also be made into hay.
Sorghum-Sudan grass is a warmth-loving plant. It is not drought-resistant at the seedling stage. Its more suitable growth temperature is 24°C~33°C. It has strong disease resistance and strong regrowth capacity, and can be cut 3~4 times a year. The hay contains more than 15% crude protein and has a relatively high sugar content, making it suitable for silage. It is favored by various livestock and poultry, and the grass supply period is from May to October.
Winter and spring hay feed
1. Silage
To provide hay for winter and spring, it is best to choose silage. Silage is compacted and sealed, and the interior lacks oxygen. After lactic acid bacteria ferment and break down sugars, the carbon dioxide produced further expels air, and the secreted lactic acid makes the feed weakly acidic (pH 3.5-4.2), which can effectively inhibit the growth of other microorganisms. Finally, the lactic acid bacteria are also inhibited by the lactic acid they themselves produce, the fermentation process stops, and the feed enters stable storage. But at this time, the loss of nutrients such as sugars in the raw material is not yet great.
The main nutritional quality of high-quality silage is close to that of its silage raw material, mainly shown by the good palatability of silage; the feed intake, organic matter digestibility, and effective energy value of ruminants are all similar to those of the silage raw material. Silage has relatively high vitamin content and energy level, and good nutritional quality. Silage is the basic feed for herbivores, and its feeding amount is generally appropriate not to exceed 30%--50% of the daily ration.
2. Barnyard millet
Its plant height can reach more than 2 m, and its grass quality is better than any kind of grass-family feed crop. Its hay crude protein content reaches 6.66%~8.70%, better than millet straw. Hay yield per mu can reach more than 1000 kg, more than double the increase of millet, and the seed can reach more than 350 kg, making it a rare supplementary concentrate for cattle and sheep.
Barnyard millet is an excellent annual forage of the grass family. It has a well-developed fibrous root system, upright stems, plant height 1.9-2.1 m, strong tillering ability, wide strip-shaped leaves, 3 cm wide and 60-70 cm long. It has wide adaptability, strong resistance, late maturity, a growth period of about 135 days, abundant leaf mass, and good palatability. It is suitable for feeding cattle, sheep, geese, and others. Cutting once a year can yield 1.5-2 tons of hay per mu and 400-500 kg of seed per mu. It is an excellent dual-purpose forage for both grass and grain. Spring sowing, with 1 kg of seed per mu. It can be used for green feeding, silage, and sun-drying into hay.