Grass feeding for dairy cows

Importance of grasses to the animal feed industry.

Low productivity of dairy cows could be mainly attribute to the less availability of forage with poor quality and also due to the poor management practices. To obtain a reasonable milk production it is vital to feed animals with high quality fodder. As a result, high yielding forages including number of Napier hybrid varieties introduced recently in Sri Lanka. Because of the number of reason growing forages is a new trend among local farmers unlike growing other economical important crops such as food and cash crops. (S. Premaratne and GGC Premalal, 2006)

The hybrid Napier CO-3 grass is one of them was introduced by the scientist at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) at Coimbatoor and released for commercial cultivation in 1997 (TNAU,2003) Later Animal Husbandry Department, Government of Tamil Nadu has taken up activities to popularize this grass among the farmers (Policy Note, 2005/2006). It is an inter-specific hybrid between Bajra (Pennisetum americanum L.) and a selection of a common Napier (Pennisetum purpureum Schum.). It is one of the highest yielding perennial tropical fodder grasses and considered as cut-and-carry forage for stall feeder systems. It is superior to other Napier varieties, NB-21 and Clone -13, which was grown by some farmers in Sri Lanka in the past.  The characteristic features of CO-3 fodder grass are: profuse tillering, high yield potential, high dry matter and crude protein content, quick regeneration capacity, high leaf to stem ratio, high palatability, free from pest and diseases and low in adverse factors. This grass is introduced to Sri Lanka in 1999 by the Livestock Breeding Project (functioned under the Ministry of Agriculture & Livestock) to boost its forage development activities (Annual report, LBP, 2000). (S. Premaratne and G.G.C.  Premalal, 2006).