What are the precautions for feeding cattle with green grass in summer?

In summer, green forage grows vigorously and comes in many varieties. They are not only green in color, tender and juicy, and easy to digest, but also rich in protein, amino acids, vitamins and minerals, making them an ideal high-quality feed for fattening beef cattle and draft cattle. However, although green forage is good, problems can also arise during the process of using it to raise cattle if it is not utilized properly. The three issues to note when feeding cattle with green forage are introduced below:

1. Note that green forage should not be the only feed. Green forage is an indispensable high-quality feed for fattening beef cattle, but it contains too much water and little dry matter. If beef cattle (especially beef cattle in the late fattening stage) are fed only green forage, although they eat very full, the dry matter energy their bodies absorb cannot meet the needs for muscle growth and fat deposition. Therefore, when using green forage to fatten beef cattle, it is essential to supplement and mix in an appropriate amount of dried green hay, grain feed (corn, sorghum, etc.) and protein feed (soybean cake, peanut cake, etc.), so that the fattening effect can be more remarkable.

2. Note the risk of nitrite and hydrocyanic acid poisoning. When feeding beef cattle and draft cattle with green, juicy forage, first, do not use leafy vegetable feed that has been piled for too long (such as radish leaves, cabbage leaves, etc.), because they contain nitrate, and spoilage bacteria can reduce nitrate to nitrite, causing poisoning after cattle eat it; second, do not feed corn seedlings, sorghum seedlings or flax leaves, because they contain cyanogenic glycosides, which can generate hydrocyanic acid in the rumen after cattle eat them and cause poisoning.

3. Note that young and tender legume forage should not be fed in excessive amounts. This is because legume forage has good protein quality, is rich in vitamins and trace elements, and has good palatability. Especially at the young and tender stage, they contain saponins. If cattle eat too much, a large amount of foam is produced in their rumen, which can easily cause rumen bloating in cattle.