Ryegrass: A quality fodder for animals

Abstract

Ryegrass is a highly digestible, palatable forage and is suitable for animals with high nutritional requirements, including lactating dairy cattle. Ryegrass with good soil fertility provides rapid growth with regeneration capacity during periods of cool temperatures and when sufficient levels of soil moisture are available. The annual ryegrass requires well-fertile aerated soils, but has a remarkable ability to adapt to a wide range of soils. For ryegrass cultivation, soil should have high water retention capacity and a pleasant edaphic environment. Annual ryegrass quickly produces large quantity of fodder and is an outstanding forage crop that fits in many production systems like intercropping with different fodder crops (Berseem, Mustard, Lucerne, Oat/Barley, etc.). Ryegrass is generally grown pure stand and the intercropping strategies have a considerable impact on the fresh yield of ryegrass. High production capacity of ryegrass makes it a popular choice for extra feed like hay and silage.