Forage is herbaceous plants or herbaceous plant parts made available for animal consumption.

Forage
can be harvested directly by the grazing animal from the standing crop (pasturage) or mechanically
harvested and then fed to herbivores (harvested or conserved forages).

Forage crops are plant crops grown for feeding as forage to ungulate herbivores, but the term is
sometimes used to exclude pasturage. Forage consists broadly of the total aboveground part of
herbaceous plants, but only selected portions of the aerial parts of the plant may be included in
harvested forages. The term "forage" may be extended to include browse (the edible leaf and stem
portions of woody plants), but this enlarged usage is mostly associated with grazing mixed rangeland
vegetation.

Herbage is similar to forage in pertaining to aboveground herbaceous vegetation, but differs in that it
may include plant material not acceptable or physically available to herbivores, these differences being
greatest in pasturage. Because roughage is described as edible but bulky, coarse plant materials high in
fiber and low in digestible nutrients, it is synonymous with forage only in part. Forages do contain
significant amounts of plant cell-wall materials, the nutritive value of which is generally significantly
lower than that for the cell-contents materials. However, many forages may still be relatively high in
digestible energy (70%) and in total protein (25%). Harvested forages are produced almost exclusively
for feeding to livestock, principally ruminants and horses. Harvested forages are commonly fed on the
farm where they are produced. However, an alternative is to sell harvested forages, primarily hay, off
the farm where produced for feeding elsewhere. Regardless of which utilization alternative—or
combination of alternatives—is followed, the production of harvested forages should be considered an
earning enterprise on the farm and planned and operated accordingly.
Although not covered in detail in this text, hay production is often locally important at restrictive
sites such as mountain meadows, wetlands and flood plains, certain native prairie sites, and selected
range seedings (the last on the better sites or in abundant rainfall years). Whereas most of the principles
of harvested forage production covered in this book apply to these unique sites as well, additional
information, adaptations, and suggestions may be desired.
Further adaptation of management techniques to hay production at these sites can be found in
the following references: on native prairies, Hyde and Owensby (1975), Conrad (1954), Coon and
Leistritz (1974), Klebesadel (1965), Burzlaff and Clanton (1971), Streeter et al (1966), Keim et al (1932),
and Towne and Ohlenbusch (1992); on mountain meadows, Siemer and Delany (1984), Delaney and
Borelh (1979), Hart etal (1980), Rumberg (1975), Lewis (1960), Hunter (1963), Willhite et al (1962),
Eckert (1975), Seamands (1966), and Barmington (1964); on flood meadows, Gomm (1979), Cooper
(1956), Rumburg (1963), Britton et al (1980), and Raleigh et al (1964); and on introduced wheatgrass
grazing lands, Peake and Chester (1943).