Introduction
Forages are grasses, legumes and other forbs grown for livestock feed. More formal definitions include:
- Plants or parts of plants eaten by herbivorous livestock (cattle, sheep, goats, horses, llamas) and wildlife (deer, elk, moose, rabbits).
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Edible parts of plants, other than separated grain, that provide feed for animals, directly as grazing or harvested as hay or silage for feeding. Forage plants can grow and regrow efficiently. Defoliation actually stimulates their growth.
Ruminants and other herbivores are able to digest cellulose through microbes living in their multi-compartment stomach (ruminants like cattle, sheep, and goats) or in their enlarge cecum (hind-gut fermenters like horses).
Forage Introduction Slide Set
introduction_-_01april2019_0.pptx introduction_-_01april2019_0.pdf
Topics
Topics for forage-livestock systems provided below contain an introduction to the topic and extension, research, and teaching applications and associated media and personnel resources.
Animals
Cover Crops
Economics
Establishment and Renovation
Fertilization and Soil Fertility
Forage Production
Grazing
Hay
Harvest
Health
Irrigation Systems
Organic Production Systems
Pest Management
Plant Breeding & Cultivar Development
Quality and Testing
Silage and Greenchop
Species
Storage
Utilization of Forage