Muhammad Waseem

World Fodder and Forage Crops Muhammad Waseem

Shorttitle: Fodder or animal feed is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. Most animal feed is from plants but some is of animal origin. "Fodder" refers particularly to food given to the animals (including plants cut and carried to them), rather than that which they forage for themselves (see forage). It includes hay, straw, silage, compressed and pelleted feeds, oils and mixed rations, and also sprouted grains and legumes. Forage is plant material (mainly plant leaves and stems) eaten by grazing livestock. Historically the term forage has meant only plants eaten by the animals directly as pasture, crop residue, or immature cereal crops, but it is also used more loosely to include similar plants cut for fodder and carried to the animals, especially as hay or silage. While the term forage has a broad definition, the term forage crop is used to define crops, annual or biennal, which are grown to be utilized by grazing or harvesting as a whole crop