Grass Species for Cattle, Sheep, Pigs, Rabbits and Geese and Their Cultivation Techniques

1. Growing grass to feed cattle: Mexican corn, alfalfa (Medicago sativa), tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea), napier grass (Pennisetum), Sudan grass (Sorghum sudanense) and others may be chosen; succulent leafy forage grasses with a high crude fiber content should not be planted. Mexican corn is suitable for planting in areas with annual rainfall of more than 800 mm and a frost-free period of more than 180 days. When the plant height reaches 1.5 m, it can be cut once a month. The dry matter of the forage contains 9.5% crude protein, 2.6% crude fat and 27.3% crude fiber. The stems and leaves are tender, crisp and juicy, sweet in taste and highly palatable, and are also suitable for silage or for curing into hay.

2. Growing grass to feed sheep: alfalfa (Medicago sativa), fodder corn, grain amaranth (Amaranthus), clover (Trifolium), winter grazing 70 ryegrass (Lolium) and others may be chosen. For sheep kept in sheds during the withered-grass period, the first choice is the perennial legume alfalfa (Medicago sativa), which prefers a semi-arid climate and has strong drought resistance, making it suitable for mountainous areas where goats are raised. Alfalfa is rich in protein, vitamins and inorganic salts; usually 4-5 kg of fresh grass can be cured into 1 kg of hay, and it is also suitable for grinding into alfalfa meal to make pelleted feed or to prepare a complete formula feed. It should be noted that sheep tolerate coarse feed, so it should be fed together with coarse feed with a high crude fiber content, such as corn stalks.

3. Growing grass to feed pigs: Rumex, cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum), comfrey (Symphytum), grain amaranth (Amaranthus), bitter lettuce (Ixeris denticulata), Chinese milk vetch (Astragalus sinicus), sweet clover (Melilotus) and others are all suitable for feeding pigs. Rumex and cup plant are both perennial herbaceous plants with extremely strong adaptability to planting regions and are suitable for monogastric animals such as pigs. When the plants grow to 70-90 cm tall, they are harvested, with 3-4 harvests per year. The whole leaves can be fed to pigs, or they can be cut into 2-3 cm small pieces and mixed with corn stalk powder at a ratio of 3:1 for feeding, achieving complementary nutritional advantages; however, no matter which feeding method is used, the amount fed must not be too much, to avoid affecting the intake of concentrated feed.

4. Growing grass to feed rabbits: chicory (Cichorium intybus), Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum), bitter lettuce (Ixeris denticulata), sweet clover (Melilotus), alfalfa king, napier grass (Pennisetum) and others may be chosen, with chicory being especially good. Chicory is a perennial herbaceous plant of the Asteraceae family, cold- and heat-tolerant, with little requirement for soil, and one sowing can be used continuously for more than 10 years. It is cut when the plant height is 50 cm, once every 30 days, and can yield more than 150,000 kg of fresh grass per hectare. Its palatability is excellent, and it can better satisfy the rabbit's habit of liking fresh grass. It can be mixed with sweet clover, alfalfa meal and the like for feeding, and the amount of forage fed should account for 50% of the total feed.

5. Growing grass to feed geese: geese tolerate coarse feed, and forage grasses suitable for feeding them include Russian fodder cabbage (comfrey, Symphytum), cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum), grain amaranth (Amaranthus), tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea), chicory (Cichorium intybus) and others. Russian fodder cabbage is a perennial Polygonaceae forage grass that has emerged in recent years; it is cold-tolerant and resistant to high temperatures, is not choosy about soil, and can be planted in farmland, on barren hills, in idle plots and beside rivers and roads, and can also be intercropped with fruit trees and economic forests. In northern regions it can be cut 4-5 times in spring, summer and autumn, while in southern regions it is cut 5-6 times a year, with a yield of 900-1,500 tonnes per hectare; the yield per 667 sq m can meet the green fodder needs of 130 geese for 1 year. When feeding, it can be reasonably combined with the other forage grasses of the above families and genera, and the effect is even better when prepared into a mixed feed.