Forage grass is the best way to mitigate cost risks in livestock farming

Livestock farming has three major risks: cost risk, market risk, and epidemic prevention risk. Whether raising cattle, pigs, chickens, ducks, or geese, all face the pressure of these three major risks, and among them, cost risk is the most important, as it directly or indirectly affects market risk and epidemic prevention risk.

Ultimately, market competition is cost competition. How to reduce costs while ensuring quality is the common desire of all business owners and enterprises, and cost reduction can indirectly lower epidemic prevention risks.

Everyone knows the benefits of reducing costs, but is there still room to reduce costs in today's livestock farming? Are there still feasible methods?

Reducing costs can only be considered from two aspects: first, finding substitutes; second, shortening the farming cycle and getting animals to market as quickly as possible. However, shortening the farming cycle is harmful, as insufficient growth time will directly affect quality. Animals basically all have a rapid growth period, followed by a maturity period. The rapid growth period is when they build their frame and gain weight, while entering the maturity period is the process of accumulating quality. For example, a 60-day goose and a 90-day or 120-day goose have different meat quality. Only after the maturity period ends do they enter the degeneration period, when the meat becomes tough and the taste declines. Most people engaged in farming tend to sell their livestock right after the rapid growth period ends, when body weight stops increasing, in order to save costs, and this affects quality. Therefore, shortening the farming cycle can only be a last resort and is not advisable from the perspective of long-term market interests. Long-term provision of low-quality products will push one's business to a dead end. In view of this, finding low-cost substitutes is the key consideration.

Humans are advanced animals, and humans cannot eat meat at every meal every day; they must eat all kinds of vegetables. Livestock and poultry are also animals. Although they are lower animals, most livestock and poultry also need to eat "vegetables" -- it is just that their "vegetables" are various forage grasses. Since the advent of artificial feed, livestock and poultry have been deprived of their right to eat "vegetables." Driven by profit, people have tried all kinds of tricks, strange methods, and even underhanded tactics to make animals grow rapidly so they can be sold and make money as quickly as possible. This rough farming that ignores natural laws ultimately harms humanity itself.

For livestock and poultry that can eat grass, as long as the appropriate degree is maintained, eating grass not only improves their meat quality but also saves grain or feed for the farm owner. Let us look at the per-mu yields and nutrient contents of several forage grasses:

1. Perennial ryegrass, per-mu yield 4000 to 5000 kg, crude protein about 10%, crude fiber about 36%.

2. Italian ryegrass, per-mu yield 10000 to 15000 kg, crude protein about 13%, crude fiber about 36%.

3. King grass, per-mu yield can reach as high as 25 tons, crude protein about 12%, soluble sugar 8.5%.

4. Chicory, per-mu yield 8000 to 10000 kg, crude protein 15-27%, crude fiber 12-36%.

5. Forage sweet sorghum, per-mu yield 15000 kg, crude protein 6-18%, crude fiber 12-36%.

6. Alfalfa, per-mu yield 5000 to 7500 kg, crude protein 4-25%, crude fiber 9-28%.

Moreover, these forage grasses are all perennials; plant once and they can be used for several years. King grass in particular can be used continuously for 12 years after a single planting, which greatly reduces field labor. Growing forage grass can also solve the problem of environmental pollution from livestock farming. Livestock and poultry manure is the best organic fertilizer for forage grass -- no chemical fertilizer is even needed. The manure is disposed of, and the forage grass grows well. At the same time, there is no fear of pests and diseases affecting the forage grass; once discovered, simply cut the forage grass and feed it directly to the livestock and poultry to solve the problem. In this one respect alone, a green and environmentally friendly circular farming system is achieved.

Importantly, the yields of these forage grasses are far higher than those of grain crops, while the planting cost of obtaining these high-yield forage grasses is very low. Adding forage grass to livestock and poultry feed in proportion will greatly reduce costs -- this is currently the best method.

For many years, the costs of China's livestock farming industry have remained high year after year. The most fundamental reason is excessive reliance on artificial feed, believing that the rapid fattening effect of feed can shorten the farming cycle. But the high cost of feed input greatly reduces profit margins, and many farmers are even operating at a loss. Although there are various reasons, the cost factor is the foremost one. This situation is something 90% of farmers have not realized, and the various benefits of growing forage grass have been overlooked by almost everyone.

The process of growing forage grass is not complicated. Land in rural areas is cheap now, forage grass seeds are not expensive either, field operations are relatively flexible, and forage grass has strong adaptability. It can also be planted on land that does not grow grain crops. A little knowledge of forage grass cultivation techniques is all it takes. And with just a little effort, what is gained is indeed double the growth.

Raise livestock and poultry well, reduce costs, and gain greater profits -- growing forage grass is very important! Whoever masters it first benefits first.

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