Planting from vegetative material - cgiar

How can forages help
improve the nutrition
of farm animals?
Feeding 'Stylo 184' to pigs in Vietnam. [WS]
Feeding 'Si Muang' to grass carp. [PK]
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Forages are the primary feed of ruminants but they can
also be fed to monogastric animals such as pigs and
poultry. Monogastric animals can only eat small amounts of
forage and need other high-energy feeds to grow well. For
example, dried legume leaf meal made from Stylosanthes
guianensis 'Stylo 184' is used in feed rations for chickens
(3 - 5%) in southern China. Another legume commonly used
to produce dried leaf meal is Leucaena leucocephala. Fresh
legume can be fed to chickens, ducks, pigs and other
monogastric animals in small quantities. Fresh grass and
legume leaf can be fed to plant-eating
fish such as grass carp.
Introduced forages such
as Panicum maximum 'Si
Muang' and Paspalum
atratum ‘Terenos’ are
important feed sources
for fish in northern Vietnam.
Ruminants such as cattle, buffalo, sheep and goats can
survive eating only low-quality feeds such as naturally
occurring grasses, crop residues and tree leaves.