Rice herbage as feed for ruminants
1993
Robles, A.Y. | Kupkanchanakul, T. | Bardhan Roy, S.K. | Vergara, B.S. (Philippines Univ., Los Banos, College, Laguna (Philippines). Inst. of Animal Science)
Results of the study revealed the following: 1) Several characteristics of the rice crop give it potential as a dual-crop for herbage and grain production. Among these are readily available inexpensive seed, ease of establishment, rapid growth, fast recovery from cutting, relatively long different growth duration, high biomass production and good quality forage; 2) Herbage yield can be modified by varietal characteristics and agronomic practices, such as growth durations, plant type leaf development, soil fertility, plant density, planting method, plant age, and cutting height. Harvesting of the rice herbage can be staggered or cut as needed until 30 days before flowering; 3) Rice herbage has high nutritive value. It can be fed as green fodder, rice forage hay, and rice forage silage. It can be used with rice straw to improve the quality of rice straw. Rice herbage is safe and already available in most animal production area; and 4) The abundant rice herbage that can be utilized as animal feed in an integrated rice-livestock production system would give farmers more benefits and profits and encourage them to raise more animals on the farm especially in area where natural grazing is limited
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