Forage Crops

The term forage means the plants used for feeding domestic animals, this includes both fodder plants and pasture plants. Forage crops have served as an important source of feed of domestic animals for a long period, although the history of their use is shorter than that of the use of native forages. Nearly 200 plant species have been known as forage crops. The most commonly used forage plant species are bluegrass, timothy, brome grass, fescues, red clover, white clover and alfalfa. Alfalfa continues to grow in popularity because of its high quality, but its production is limited to only the better soil types. Corn grown for silage is increasing in popularity as forage on many dairy farms.

Agriculture and animal husbandry in India are interwoven with the intricate fabric of the society in cultural, religious and economical ways as mixed farming and livestock rearing forms an integral part of rural living. The benefit of forage crops to humans, however, is not limited only to livestock production. They also contribute to food crop production and many other aspects of human life through the following: (a) soil conservation and amelioration; (b) landscape and wildlife conservation; (c) improvement and protection of the environment from pollution; (d) reclamation, revegetation and ecological repair of degraded land; (e) outdoor recreation and pleasure; (f) potential conversion of biomass to energy; (g) sources of fiber for the manufacture of paper and building materials;  (h) sources of extracts for high-quality proteins and medical and pharmaceutical products.

The history of forage crops can be traced back to about 1300 BC when alfalfa was cultivated in Turkey. Relatively widespread use of forage crops, however, appeared much later, around the beginning of the Christian era, when several species were cultivated in several areas of the world, mainly in the Mediterranean region of Europe. Little happened between the fifth and twelfth centuries, but the thirteenth to nineteenth centuries saw great advances in forage crops. They contributed to the development of mixed farming in the European agricultural revolution, and spread globally with the expansion of Europeans into other continents. The use of forage crops developed also with the rise of industrialized agriculture, which involved the use of new techniques and industrial inputs, the application of science and the rise of a forage seed industry. Since the first domestication of grazing animals in ancient times, forage has been a major concern of humans in the husbandry of animals. The early recognition of the importance of forage is also demonstrated by the early development of forage conservation. Forage is conserved as hay through drying or as silage through fermentation. The main objective of the conservation of forage is to preserve it at the optimum stage of growth for use during those seasons when the forage is unavailable.

Forage needs to be seeded in a fine, firm seedbed often achieved by cultivating the soil. The soil has to be analysed, and the proper amounts of nutrients added for the forage to grow. It can then be grazed by farm animals or it can be harvested and stored for winter feeding. Harvested forage is stored as dry hay, haylage or silage.  In recent years there has been a dramatic shift towards the utilization of silage. Silage is forage with a higher moisture content that is stored in a structure called silo where oxygen is eliminated and the forage ferments.

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