Forage and Pasture crops

Introduction
Livestock production contributes up to 80%
 Ethiopia has the largest livestock population

Uncontrolled grazing
degradation of pastureland
soil
erosion,
 deforestation
 declining soil structure and fertility
– social and economic
 Afar Region
 More than 95% population depend on livestock
 Serious feed problem both in quality and quantity
 Totally depend on natural grazing lands
Natural range lands
 over grazing
 Bush encroachment

 Drought

 Decline of seed from soil bank

 Resulted In low productivity of livestock

affecting the livelihood of the pastorals and agro-
pastorals.
 Improved forage and pasture
crops
 WARC
 develops improved forage crops for middle
Awash irrigated areas.
 Availability of seed
 Availability of irrigation facility
 Availability of fertile soil
 Production system
 Lack of knowledge for forage conservation
 Livestock number in relation to available forage
 Improved Forage
production Strategies
 Fully employed by forth livestock
development
 Farmer centered
 objectives behind forage development.
 To increase the quantity of forage produced
  To increase the quality of forage
  To help prevent soil erosion
 The development agent should always remember
these rules when dealing with agro-pastorals.
1. Reduced uncontrolled grazing.
2. Cut and carry the forage where possible instead
of grazing
3. Use more legumes to improve forage quality and
increase soil fertility
4. Use low cost forage production
5. Integrate forage production with cropping
systems.
6. Give emphasis on soil conservation
7. Use multipurpose legumes (food and feed)
 The strategies are:
  Backyard forage production
  Undersowing and inter-planting
  Forage strip establishment
  Over sowing on Grazing Areas
  permanent Grass/Legume Pasture
Establishment
  Improved Forages In Stock Exclusion
Areas
 .Backyard Forage
production
Where to promote Backyard Forages
O Where livestock numbers are high and grazing
land is scarce
 o Where good control of livestock is possible
 o Where there is sufficient space in the
backyard.

 Undersowing and inter-
planting
 Under sowing has a number of important purposes
o It improves the feeding value of the crop residue
o It is a quick and easy method of establishing longer
term pastures
o It improves soil fertility
O It provides extra food for the family if grain legumes
are used
o It can also be used for forage seed production.
 Useful species should have most of the
following characteristics:
 Deep rooted
 More green leaves
 Easy to establish
 o seed heavily and early
 hard seed to enable regeneration
 o early maturing and drought tolerant.
 Examples
 v Cowpea
 v Lablab
 v Pigeonpea (short duration)
 v Green leaf
 When and where to promote undersowing
 v In intensive cropping areas where extra
forage is needed
 v Where food legumes are not already
under sown
 v When more high protein food is needed
for humans
 v To establish long term pastures
 v To maintain or improve soil fertility.
 Forage Strip Establishment
 established between arable crops
 The forage strips have a number of uses.
 v They provide forage for cut and carry
 v They prevent soil erosion
 v They provide wood for fuel and shelter
belts if tree legumes are used
 v They improve soil fertility
 When and where to promote forage strips.

 -On slops where soil erosion is a problem.
 -On bunds and terraces
 -In arable areas where forage production is low at present
 -Where good control of livestock is possible.
 Over sowing on Grazing Areas
 simplest of the forage development
strategies
 Over sowing has a number of advantages
  It is very low cost
  It require little labor
  It needs little or no management
  It improve forage production
  It maintain or increase soil fertility

 When and where to promote over sowing
  On poorer soils where a high cost system could
not be justified.
  In areas with lighter and looser soils
  A long road sides
  In pasture areas lacking a good legume content.
 Permanent Grass/Legume Pasture
Establishment
 The advantages of the system
 It produces a high yielding, high quality forage
 The legume improve or maintain soil fertility
 It allows a high stocking rate and high levels of animal
production with relatively low labor inputs.
 When and where to promote permanent pastures
 @ On good soils
 @ In intensive livestock enterprise, particularly diary
 @ In areas with a longer growing season or where
there is irrigation facility.
 @ Where management is good.
 2.6. Improved Forages In Stock Exclusion
Areas
 degraded area
 Watersheds
 common land
 When and where to promote improvement of exclusion
areas:
 @ Immediately after the area has been designated
for exclusion
 @ Where the local community is willing to control
livestock access
 @ Mostly at low to medium altitudes
 @ Where soils are good enough to allow at
least moderate productivity
 @ In areas where there has been some soil
disturbance
 @ Near village so that utilization by cut and
carry is possible.
 FORAGE MANAGMEANT AND USE
 Establishing forage is useful
– forage is managed
– used efficiently
– Uncontrolled grazing
– sever soil erosion and
– degradation of the rangelands
1.Cut and carry
– Benefits of cut and carry
@ higher forage production and higher rates of
utilization.
@ It avoids wastage of forage
@ It reduces internal parasite
@ It avoids distraction of the pasture by
overgrazing
@ It helps to control soil erosion.
Feeding the animals as close as possible
to where the forage is growing.

This has two advantages

@ It reduces the labor requirement for
carrying the forage
@ It allows the animals manure to be
spread easily on to the forage or
crop area.

 When to cut the forage

 Forage is at its best when it is young and

green.
 more palatable and nutritious
 For grasses frequent cutting
 e.g.. Rhodes every 30 to 45 days
 Tree legumes 1m height at this high
proportion of leaves.
 Proportion of legumes should be 20-30%
 3.2 FORAGE CONSERVATION
 Lack of quality feed is the critical problem
 methods of solving the problem of lack of
good quality forage in dry season.
 o The growing of forage, especially
legumes
provide high quality
o Forage conservation

 When to cut hay

 For high quality forage, the sward should be cut

just before flowering.
This will produce reasonable yield of hay with
 o High digestibility
 o High protein content
 Conservation guidelines
 Hay production is a simple task but a lot of poor
quality hay is produced though simple mistakes.
 The following rules should apply
 O Cut the hay before flowering of the grass
species
 o Try to time cutting for a gap in the rains
 o Dry the hay as quickly as possible
 o Keep the hay mould- free by regular
turning
 o Once dry, stack the hay using the’ heap-
up’ method
 o Ensure that the hay sacks are rainproof.
 3.3. Grazing management
 Most forage development strategies are
directed towards utilization by cut and
carry.
 However, grazing management is important in
some situations.
 o For native pastures where some
control of livestock is possible
 o For sown grass/legume pastures.
 Rotational grazing may have substantial
benefits in terms of parasite control.
 4.0 Seed production
 Objective:
– to make available quality seed or vegetative material

Site selection
The most suitable regions
– an adequate growing season to support good seed set
and maturation:
– freedom from frost; even sunny conditions during
flowering to promote flower opening, pollination and
high rates of photosynthesis during seed differanation
– access to labor for harvesting and seed cleaning; and
access to markets and seed storage infrastructure
 Seedbed preparation
 Seed crops need to be established in a clean, fine
and firm seedbed

 ensure a strong, dense plant population, which

will compete with weeds and maximize yields.
 Land leveling is advantageous for irrigated
systems

 Rough, weedy underdeveloped/ under prepared
seedbeds may cause poor establishment giving
poor plant populations, which allow uneven tiller
and seed maturation.
 Time of sowing
 Planning time depends largely on the reliability
of rainfall and potential evapotranspiration.

 Early sowing has the best chance of producing a

good harvest.

 Under irrigated condition time sowing is only

factor for legumes, which flower during cool
temperature.

 Example alfalfa needs cool temperature to

flower.
 Seed rate
species DM Number Seed rate Spacing
(t/ha)
Of harvest Kg/ha
Chloris gayana (Rhodes grass) 42 6 6-10 40cm x 0cm
1 cv.Masaba

Cenchrus ciliaris (Buffel grass) 40 8 8-13 40cm x 0cm

2 Cv. Biloela
Panicum antidotale(blue panic) 65 7 4-5 40cm x 0cm
3
Pennisetum Purpureum (Elephant 45 4 cutting 100ccm x 50 cm
4 grass)
Medicago Sativa (Alfalfa) 55 8 6-8 40cm x 0cm
1 Hairy Peruvian

Macroptilum atropurpureum 36 7 6 40cm x 0cm

2 (siratro)

Lab- lab purpures (Dolicos) 45 3 18-20 40cm x 10cm

3
Leucaena lecocephala 65 4 100cm x 25cm
1 cv.Cumighum
Sesbania sesban 40 4 100cm x 25cm
2
 Depth sowing

 Not more than 1 cm for small seeds grasses

Establishment problems
 These problems generally fail into four. These
are:-
 @ Physical loss of seed
 @ Loss of seed viability due to environmental stress

 @ Failure of germinated seed to emerge from the soil

due to environmental stresses

 @Mortality of emerged seedlings due to

environmental stresses, plant competition or
pathogen or pest attacks.
 Weeding
 Seed harvesting
 A number of visual indictors

 Seed storage
– A number of factors influence the viability and
maintenance of seed quality during storage.

– The most important are seed moisture and

temperature.