Perennial Grasses under Intensive Fodder Production Systems

Green fodder is the cheapest and most nutritious sources of cattle feed. Judicious feeding of livestock with nutritious forage is very important for ensuring optimum level of milk production and for maintaining draught power of animals. The wide gap between the requirement and availability of feeds or forages is the major limiting factor of livestock production. Hence, the year round supply of green forage by adopting intensive fodder production system through intercropping perennial grasses of setaria cv. Kazungula and Nandi, guinea grass, hybrid napier and para grass with legumes viz., cowpea in summer and kharif and pea in rabi season as intercrops. In fact, growing of grasses and leguminous fodder crops in association not only increase the productivity of fodder but also improves the soil fertility and quality of fodder. Results of the experiment revealed that the setaria cv. Kazungula produced maximum green fodder in sole and setaria cv. Nandi in legume intercropping systems but higher dry matter and crude protein yield were produced in hybrid napier both in sole and intercropping systems.