AGT 211

PASTURE AND FORAGE

PRODUCTION

F. G. OYENIYI
Introduction
• Pasture is defined as an area of land covered with grasses, herbaceous
legumes, forbs, shrubs and trees used for livestock feeding or
environmental protection
• Forage refers to any aboveground plant material used for feeding
livestock, but excluding concentrates and other industrial by-products
• Pastures and forages could be artificially sown or occur naturally
• Natural or native pastures are found in rangelands, river banks, road
sides and abandoned lands while sown pastures are found in
commercial farms, universities, colleges of agriculture and some
research institutes in Nigeria
 Importance of forage production
• The study of pasture and forage production enable us to understand the
linkage between the various ecosystems (biotic and abiotic) within the
grassland or rangeland
• It also teaches us how to produce qualitative forage for sustainable
livestock production
• This will in turn help to boost the income level of farmers and
improvement of livelihoods
• Similarly, study of pasture and forage production will assist in providing
employment and recreational opportunities to a lot of people in Nigeria
• Some industries such as pharmaceutical industries will be encouraged to
expand their economic base since most of these pasture and forage crops
have strong aesthetic values
 Importance of pasture in animal production
• Pasture production is paramount to the development of any livestock
enterprise especially under situations where profit gain and
environmental sustainability are the goals of the production
• Nature has set plants to be the primary producers of energy to other
animals including man
• There is a direct or indirect relationship between pasture species and
livestock performance depending on the management
• Ruminant livestock such as cattle, sheep and goats can graze or browse
the pasture, others such as pigs, poultry, rabbits and equines (donkeys
and horses) have the ability to ingest some amount of fibrous forages,
which ferment in the caeca and provide the animals with some energy
for physiological activities
 Classification of Pasture plants
• A) Grasses: These are monocotyledons, belong to the family Gramineae or
Poaceae
• They are characterized by high energy, low crude protein, fast growth rate,
cylindrical stems and leaves
• The leaves have parallel venation pattern and stem is hollow; they have fibrous
rooting system with light and small seeds
• They are the most economically important plant family, providing staple
foods from domesticated cereal crops such as maize, wheat, rice, barley, millet,
sugarcane as well as feed for meat-producing animals
• They provide, through direct human consumption, just over one-half (51%) of
all dietary energy; rice provides 20%, wheat supplies 20%, maize (corn) 5.5%,
and other grains 6%
• Bamboo, thatch, and straw are used as building materials while corn can be
converted to ethanol (a biofuel)
• Of all crops grown in the world, 70% are grasses
• B). Legumes: These belong to three different families (Mimosoideae,
Caesalpinoideae and Papilionaceae) depending on the nature and
shape of their flowers
• They have broad leaves with net venation pattern; they are herbaceous
plants with flowers occurring mainly at the terminal buds
• It is also possible to have flowers in other parts of the plant such as
auxiliary branches; these flowers produce seeds in pods
• Examples include Centrosema pascourum, Alysicarpus varginalis and
Mucuna pruriens
• Beans, soybeans, peas, chickpeas, peanuts, lentils, lupins, mesquite, ca
rob, tamarind, alfalfa, and clover are other examples
• C) Grazing plants: These are short herbs that are consumed with both
leaves and stems together; examples include: Brachiaria ruziziensis,
Sorghum almum (Columbus grass), Arachis pintoii and Digitaria
smutsii
• Grazing is a method of feeding in which a herbivore feeds on low-
growing plants such as grasses or other multicellular organisms, such
as algae
• Many species of animals can be said to be grazers, such as
hippopotamuses, kangaroo, sheep, rabbits, horses, cattle, geese,
grasshoppers, small aquatic snails etcetera
• Grazing's ecological effects can include redistributing nutrients,
keeping grasslands open or favouring a particular species over another
• Grazing can allow for the accumulation of organic matter which may
help to combat soil erosion; this acts as nutrition for insects and
organisms found within the soil and these organisms aid in carbon
sequestration and water filtration
• D). Browse Plants: These are woody plants whose leaves and twigs
(soft stems and buds) are eaten while the woody stem is left uneaten
e.g. Leucaena leucocephala, Gliricidia sepium and Gmelina aborea
• Browsing is a type of herbivory in which a herbivore feeds on leaves,
soft shoots, or fruits of high-growing, generally woody plants such
as shrubs
• Goats, deers, Chitals, Elephants are some of the animals that browse
• If over-browsing continues for too long, the ability of the ecosystem's
trees to reproduce may be impaired, as young plants cannot survive
long enough to grow too tall for browsers to reach
• E). Annuals: These are plants that complete their life cycle within one
growing season and survive the dry season as seeds e.g. Chloris gayana,
Brachiaria mulato II, Pennisetum purpureum and Hypherrania rufa
• The length of growing seasons and period in which they take place vary
according to geographical location, and may not correspond to the four
traditional seasonal divisions of the year
• One seed-to-seed life cycle for an annual plant can occur in as little as a
month in some species, though most last several months
• Many food plants are grown as annuals, including virtually all
domesticated grains
• Some perennials and biennials are grown in gardens as annuals for
convenience, particularly if they are not considered cold hardy for the
local climate
• Corn, wheat, rice, lettuce, peas, watermelon, beans, zinnia and marigold
are examples of true annuals
• F). Biennials: These are plants that complete their life cycle in two
seasons; the first season is for vegetative growth and the second for
reproductive growth e.g. Panicum maximum (Elephant grass),
Andropogon tectorum (Southern Gamba grass) and Cynodon dactylon
(Bermuda grass)
• Biennials do not always follow a strict two year life cycle and the
majority of plants in the wild can take 3 or more years to fully mature
• Under extreme climatic conditions, a biennial plant may complete its life
cycle rapidly (e.g., in three months instead of two years)
• It is quite common in vegetable or flower seedlings that were vernalized
before they were planted in the ground
• This behaviour leads to many normally biennial plants being treated as
annuals in some areas
• Conversely, an annual grown under extremely favorable conditions
may have highly successful seed propagation, giving it the appearance
of being biennial or perennial
• Some short-lived perennials may appear to be biennial rather than
perennial
• True biennials flower only once, while many perennials will flower
every year once mature
• Biennials grown for flowers, fruits, or seeds need to be grown for two
years; those that are grown for edible leaves or roots are grown for just
one year (and not grown on a second year to run to seed)
• There are far fewer biennials than either perennial plants or annual
plants
• G). Perennials: These are plants that grow throughout the year for many
years producing flowers and seeds without dying such as Gmelina aborea
tree, Ziziphus mauritiana tree, Ficus thonningii tree and Acacia albida
tree
• The term is also widely used to distinguish plants with little or no woody
growth (secondary growth in girth) from trees and shrubs, which are also
technically perennials
• Depending on the rigours of local climate (temperature, moisture, organic
content in the soil, microorganisms), a plant that is a perennial in its
native habitat, may be treated by a gardener as an annual and planted out
every year
• Tomato vines, for example, live several years in their natural
tropical/subtropical habitat but are grown as annuals in temperate regions
because their above-ground biomass doesn't survive the winter
• Perennial plants are most commonly:
i). Herbaceous - plants that have foliage and stems that die to the ground
at the end of the growing season and which show only primary growth
ii). Evergreen - with persistent foliage without woody stems
iii).Woody - plants with persistent above ground stems that survive from
one growing season to the next, with primary and secondary growth, or
growth in width protected by an outer cortex
Perennial plants often have deep, extensive root systems which can hold
soil to prevent erosion, capture dissolved nitrogen before it can
contaminate ground and surface water, and out-compete weeds (reducing
the need for herbicides)
These potential benefits of perennials have resulted in new attempts to
increase the seed yield of perennial species
• Perennial plants dominate many natural ecosystems on land and in
fresh water, with only a very few (e.g. Zostera) occurring in shallow
sea water
• Herbaceous perennial plants are particularly dominant in conditions
too fire-prone for trees and shrubs, e.g., most plants
on prairies and steppes are perennials; they are also dominant
on tundra too cold for tree growth
• Nearly all forest plants are perennials, including the trees and shrubs
• Some examples of new perennial crops being developed are perennial
rice and intermediate wheatgrass
• H). Weeds: These are plant species that invade an area by themselves
i.e. they grow in unwanted areas; examples are Sorghum bicolor,
Amaranthus spinosis and Tridax procumbens
 COMMON FORAGE CROPS USED IN
LIVESTOCK FEEDING IN NIGERIA
• Maize plant used in making silage
• Sugar Beet used in making hay and silage
• Sorghum almum (Columbus Grass)
• Lablab (Lablab purpureus L. Sweet)
• Andropogon gayanus (Northern Gamba Grass
• Andropogon tectorum (Southern Gamba Grass)
• Hyparrhenia rufa (Shuchi Grass)
• Pennisetum typhoides cv Maiwa
• Stylosanthes guianensis cv Schofield stylo
• Stylosanthes hamata cv Verano stylo
• Brachiaria decumbens (Signal Grass)
• Digitaria smutsii (Woolly Finger Grass)
• Gliricidia sepium (Almond Blossom)
Classification of pasture on duration of use
• A). Annuals
• B). Biennials
• C). Perennials
• D). Ephemerals (An ephemeral plant is one marked by short life
cycles)
 Classification of pasture on nutrients
composition basis
• A). Grasses
• B). Legumes
• C). Browse plants
• D). Grazing plants
• E). Forbs - A forb or phorb is a herbaceous flowering plant that is not
a graminoid (grass, sedge, or rush)
Fig 5: Sunflower (Helianthus
annuus), a large forb.