Planting from vegetative material - cgiar

Feed young forage for good
growth. [JH]
30
2. Provide good quality feed
To ensure that animals eat good-quality forage:
Offer young forages instead of old forages
Young forages are leafy and the stems are still soft.
Leaves are more digestible and nutritious than stems.
Older forages have a higher yield but much of this is
unpalatable, low-quality stem.
Add legumes to the diet
These provide extra protein, minerals and vitamins.
Provide a mixture of different forages
It is a common practice for farmers to mix leaves of many
plants when feeding cut-and-carry forage. This provides a
healthy balance of nutrients and introduces animals to
nutritious feed which they may otherwise reject.
Some farmers chop up low-quality feeds (for example
mature 'Napier' grass or maize stems) to make them
palatable. Although chopping stems will enable animals to
eat it, chopping does not improve its nutritive value. The
result will be low animal production unless high-protein and
high-energy feed supplements are provided.