Fodder Production and Pasture Management
Fodder questions test crop choice, seasonal gaps, conservation and grazing management, with a bias towards what grows in Assam's humid climate.
Fodder crops
- Cereals: fodder maize (highest yield, best for silage), sorghum, bajra, oat.
- Legumes: berseem, lucerne (high protein, deep roots), cowpea, rice bean; legumes fix nitrogen and improve the ration.
- Perennial grasses: hybrid napier, para grass, guinea grass, setaria; planted on bunds and non-cropped land.
- Aquatic and tree fodder: azolla (about 20–25% protein on dry basis), duckweed, ipil-ipil, subabul.
- Crop residues: paddy straw and sugarcane tops; urea treatment raises the protein of straw.
Conservation
- Silage: harvest maize at dough stage with 65–70% moisture, chaff to 2–3 cm, fill, compact, cover and seal; good silage smells sour and keeps its texture.
- Hay: dry to under 15% moisture, cure in shade, store off the ground.
- Fodder bank: about 0.1 ha of hybrid napier per 2–3 cows with irrigation.
Pasture
Rotational grazing with 3–4 paddocks, rest 25–30 days, avoid grazing below 10 cm, control weeds, keep a water point, and do not graze waterlogged pasture because of liver fluke.
Worked example
A farmer has 0.2 ha and 3 crossbred cows. Reasoning: hybrid napier at 30–40 t/ha/year gives 6–8 t from 0.2 ha, roughly 18–22 kg green fodder per cow per day with irrigation and manure - enough as a base, but concentrate and straw are still needed in winter. The plan is napier plus a small berseem plot for protein.
Traps
- Making silage at flowering stage or with wet, wilted material.
- Feeding mouldy hay or silage.
- Continuous grazing with no rest period.
- Expecting green fodder alone to support 15 litres.