Definition of pasture and forage crop

A pasture is a land covered with grasses and other low plants suitable for grazing domesticated
animals like goats, sheep, cattle and horses. Pasture can either exist naturally as range lands or
man-made in that they are intensively managed through seeding, mowing and fertilization.
Pastures yield more forage than range lands. The word pasture came from Latin ‘Pastus’ which
means ‘feed’ more like ‘food’. Pastures are made up of combination or single legumes, grasses,
forbs and browse.
Forage crops are the crops grown specifically to be grazed by livestock or to be conserved for
future use as either hay or silage for livestock feeding. Forage crops aids in achieving the
production targets for qualities (like growth and weight gain) and to make up seasonal short fall
between demand and supply in livestock feeding. Therefore, a pasture can either be a man
cultivated or natural grazing plot of land on which forage crops are planted and managed for
livestock to feed on.
Classification of pasture
Pasture can be classified based on:
a. Duration of use as:
i. Annual pastures: These are mostly single species or combination of two of either grass,
legume, or forbs. They are found in arable farms in the Northern part of Nigeria. They
can only survive one (1) year or less.
ii. Permanent/Perennials pasture: they are made up of grasses, legumes, herbs and other
forage plants that are grazed year after year. The pasture usually regrow quickly.
Permanent pastures are made up of nutritious crops which will reshoot fresh young leaves
after being grazed. They can survive more than three (3) years.
iii. Biennial pastures: survives more than one year but less than two years before they die
off.
b. Mode of existence as:
i. Artificial Pastures: This is an area of land covered with forage grasses and legumes
which are intentionally planted by man for feeding of livestock. They are richer in
nutrient composition.
 ii. Natural pastures: These are areas of land covered with forage grasses and legumes
which are not planted by man. This is can also called Range lands.
c. Nutritional value:
i. Woodly pastures, are trees and shrubs
ii. Herbaceous pastures; are grasses, forbs and legumes.
Nutritionally, the herbaceous plants are richer in nutrients when compared with woodly
pastures. Forbs are primarily broadleaf, non woody plants. Grasses are lower in crude
protein, high in digestible energy, low in calcium and magnesium when compared with
legumes. Legumes are very rich in crude protein; they aid to improve the soil through
their nitrogen fixing ability.
Establishment of pastures and forage crops
Concept and significance of establishing a new pasture
Good planning is a major prerequisite for successful pasture establishment. Before establishing
pastures, there are things to check ahead of time (soil fertility through soil tests). In Kenya,
growing of pastures are not commonly done, due to inadequate land, unfavorable climatic
condition and absence of enabling grazing laws. The establishment of new annual or perennial
pastures can be capital intensive, so it is important to reduce the risk of failure. Successful
pasture establishment requires ensuring high levels of production and persistence in the use of
improved forage crops. Establishment of pastures are very essential to support ruminant animal
growth and development when there are shortages in the range due to drought, disease, pest etc.
Pasture establishment also provides more healthy and nutritious fodder for livestock grazing
during scarcity.
Factors to be considered before establishing a pasture:
 Adaptability of the forage crop: The climatic influences on the environment must be
considered, before planting a forage crop. Some grass, plants drive belter in worn weather
than cold weather. The soil nutrient composition also influences the adaptability of the
forage. The survivability of the forage is every essential to its establishment and growth.
 Topography of the area: Unlevelled land that has the likelihood of erosion should be
covered with tufted species of pastures that can serve as anti-erosion measure, like
Axonopus compressus pasture (carpet grass)
  Palatability: Pleasant and perusable taste pasture plants should be planted so that grazing
animals can graze with relish, hence gain the needed nutrients.
 High yielding species: Pastures to be grown must have a high yielding potential, fast
growth rate and ability to re-grow fast.
 Time of maturity: Forage crops with short- time of maturity will provide quick and timely
forage grasses for livestock. While pasture plants with a longer time of maturity will not
be dependable.
Methods of establishing a good pasture:
The steps involved in the sitting up a new pasture are as follows:
a. Soil test: helps to determine the best type of forage to plant
b. Preparation of the land: The bush needs to be cleared either annually or mechanically
depending on the size of the land and capital at hand. The site should be made plan and clear.
c. Tilling and making of seed bed: seed beds are not always compulsory. Most often the seeds
are drilled directly into the tilled soil. The soil can be hallowed or ploughed with the aid of
tractors.
d. Planting: usually planting of pastures can be achieved through the use of seeds, or vegetative
through leaves, cuttings, rhizomes, rootstocks and stacks. Adequate care should be taken not to
bury the seeds too deep into the soil or place stem cuttings upside down.
e. Weed control: Controlling weeds that are not wanted in the pasture is not always easy with the
use of herbicides in a mixed pasture. Care should be taking to avoid uprooting pastures plants
during weeding. Weed can introduce pests and disease. They also compete with fodder plants for
space and nutrients.
f. Fertilization and liming: To improve the nutrients status of the pasture fertilizers are usually
applied as either organic or inorganic fertilizers. Liming is usually done after land clearing or
within the pasture active growth stage to improve the soil pH level.
Types of grazing
a. Zero grazing: Here animals are housed in their pens, while fodder is cut and dispense into the
livestock feeding troughs. Animals are restricted from entering the field.
b. Strip grazing: Livestock are protected and kept in the fields which are partitioned by electric
fences. These fences can be adjusted to increase or decrease the land mass. This method also
allows controlled grazing to be practiced in the field.
c. Padlock grazing: The grazing area are usually divided into padlocks, small enough for the herd
to graze in few days.
d. Continuous grazing: Livestock are allowed to graze on a plot of pasture day by day. The
pasture is usually over stretched with this method.
e. Creep grazing: This allows young, smaller animals to graze in areas that mature livestock
cannot have access to graze. It is accomplished by having creeps gates or fencing that permits the
smaller animal through.
Types of pasture
Mixed pastures
Mixed pastures are pasture lands with more than one species of forage crop. It can be a
combination of grass and legumes or browse and forbs or combination of all. Mixed pastures are
richer in terms of nutrient compositions.
Advantages of mixed pastures
a. Higher in nutritional value
b. Improves soil fertility by fixation of Nitrogen into the soil
c. They are more palatable
d. The aid to prevent total loss from pest or disease incidence as there are variety of plants within
the pasture.
e. They bring about reduction in production cost as Nitrogen is fixed by some of the plants in the
pastures, hence no need to procure fertilizers again.
f. They provide better distribution of growth as some will mature early, other late.
g. Mixed pastures improves flexibility to survive environmental conditions.
Disadvantages of mixed pastures
a. Weed control is not easy with the use of herbicides
b. There is high seed as various varieties of seeds needs to be purchased
c. Mixed pastures are expensive to manage.
Pure stand pastures
Pure stand pastures is a population of pasture plant, consisting exclusively of one type or
member or specie of forage crop.
Advantages of pure stand pastures
a. Easy to maintain and manage
b. Easy to control weeds especially with herbicides
c. Pure stands often generates more income than mixed pastures
d. They command high in the market, hence generating more income
Disadvantages of pure pastures
a. They are less in nutrient composition
b. Often bores the animals because of the monotony
c. Less palatable.

Improvement and management practice of pasture and forage crops

Processes involved in assessing and managing a pasture include
1. Pasture mass; can be either be assessed by cutting, drying and weighing representative
pastures samples or by the use of tools of varying levels of sophistication.
There are three (3) groups of tools that can be used to access the pasture mass.
a. Pasture rulers or sticks: These are used to measure the height of pastures. This method
is simple, cheap and easy to use. Heights are easily converted to an estimate of kilogram
(kg) green dry matter (DM) per hectare (ha) through a check-up table, like the MLA
pasture ruler.
b. Rising plate meters measures the total pasture mass, green and dry standing feed, and
are based on a plate that rises up a probe depending on the amount of compressed pasture
material between the plate and ground.
c. Sophisticated models like Electronic pasture probes, measures dry matter of green
material only. They are quick, easy to use and usually fully automated including the
capacity to directly download reading into office computers.
2. Pasture composition: There are a number of methods for measuring composition of a pasture.
This usually depends on size of plot, they include:
a. Prograze stick method: The same stick used for pasture mass is used, but a nail is
driven on top of the dowel stick to allow it to measure both height and composition. Steps
involved: (1) select a transect across padlock (2) Throw the stick (3) Use the recording
sheet to record all plant species touching the head of the nail. (4) Walk a number of steps.
(5) Repeat the above until the padlock has been traversed. (6) Calculate the percentage of
hits for each species or grouping.
 b. Transect method: This is similar to Prograze method but no stick
c. Quadrat method: A quadrat is a means of defining a small sample area that can be
assessed. Steps involved: (a) place a quadrat on the ground (b) stand vertically above the
quadrat and estimate the proportion of the quadrat area occupied by each class of species
(c) record the proportions on the work sheet repeat the process until sufficient sites have
been sampled calculate the average cover for each species.
d. Blandstone method: This involves standing on the field with about half meter apart.
Visualize a square 0.5 x 0.5.5 m in front of your toes.
Estimate the proportion of the square that each plant type occupies and record toes. The
composition of a pasture for optimum production should be legumes species 20-30%, but
40% in special cases. Productive and perennial grasses -60-80%. Annual grass and
broadleaf-weeds maximum of 10%. Bare ground-maximum 10% and Noxious weed
10%.
3. Pasture phenology: This involves checking for target species and involves the examination of
individual tillers from perennial grass clumps to count the number of new leaves on each tiller.
The number of leaves is a good indicator of the start of senescence (dying) of the oldest leaf on
each tiller. The ideal number of tillers is between 3 and 4 generally although the number of
leaves vary from specie to specie. This is a correlation between levels of water soluble
carbohydrates and leaf number for some grasses.
4. Pasture utilization: This assesses the information on the number of active growing leaves for
different species, plant based grazing management methods. This involves:
a. Estimating herbage mass kg DM/ha as livestock leave the padlock(A)
b. Estimate herbage mass kg DM/ha at a point in the future padlock(B)
c. Record the number of days between readings
Calculation is
(𝐵 − 𝐴)/𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠 = 𝑋 𝑘𝑔 𝐷𝑀/ℎ𝑎 /𝑑𝑎𝑦 Where X is the resultant difference between
plot B and A.
This also calculated carrying capacity: The number of animals per acre that can be grazed
on a plot of pasture for one month during the year without having injurious effect on the
natural vegetative over.
5. Pasture quality: The quality of a pasture is an assessment of the nutritional (energy) content.
This requires laboratory analysis. Field observations only provides a useful guild to energy
content in MJ ME/kg. Dry matter actively growing green materials is normally in the range of
11.0-12.OMJ ME/kg dry matter. Actively growing legumes normally have slightly higher energy
content (0.5MJ ME/kg dry matter) than perennial grass. So pasture that is 100% green has 30%
legumes and 60-70% grass with the oldest leaf of dominant grass has not started senescence can
be assumed to have energy content greater than 11.5MJME/kg DM.

The ways and reasons for improving pastures

The main reason for managing a pasture is to obtain maximum growth of forage crops so as to
ensure healthy animals.
Ways of improving pastures includes:
a. Fertilizing and liming: fertilization can be either be achieved through animal faecal deposits or
application of additional organic or inorganic fertilizer. This is important because overtime
plants especially grasses draw up nutrients from the soil in other to grow, there is always a need
to replace the loss nutrients so as to ensure healthy pasture. Liming on the other hand improves
the soil pH and indirectly promotes plant growth.
b. Controlled grazing: It is essential to always keep pastures well covered with forage crops, as
man cannot always regulate the influence of weather on the pasture. Therefore there is need to
always check the livestock stocking density at a time to reduce the effect of tramping and
adverse damages on the pasture.
c. Grooming the pasture field: Trimming ensures that new growth are tender, nutritious and
appetizing for livestock. Cutting off overgrown and dead tops will improve root growth as well
as aerial growth.
d. Reseeding pastures: adding new seeds to pasture is important to maintaining the health and
stability of turf grasses. Usually pasture should be hallowed before resending.
e. Aerate and weed: aerate the tamped down and hardened soil from time to time. Weed off
weeds and poorly managed turf grasses and legumes also improve the pasture.
Problems associated with pasture managements
• Inconsistency of forage quality and quantity; pasture growth are mostly influenced by climatic
conditions. The pasture is usually rich and lush during raining seasons, dry and scanty during dry
season. Variations due to changes in weather condition influence the availability of quality and
quantity of forage.
• Grazing; constitutes a problem if the pasture is over stocked with livestock or gazed too
frequently leading to over grazing. Hence making regrowth of pasture very difficult. Trampling,
pulling and dislodging of pasture plants during grazing by livestock also affects the quality of
pasture over time.
• Soil condition; the condition of soil may change overtime due to continuous uptake of nutrients
from the soil or downward washing of nutrients into the soil (leaching). Erosion can be also
affect the availability of nutrients on the soil surface. Low level of nutrients in the soil will
automatically yield poor quality pasture. Replacing loss nutrients in the soil through fertilizer
application is not always easy in pastures due to nature and style of planting.
• Presence of harmful materials, preys and predators: There are harmful plants materials like
endophytes which are fungi that live in grasses. These endophytes are in symbiotic relationship
with grass plants. They do not harm plants but are toxic to laboratory analysis. The pasture is a
habitat for snakes and scorpions they can also bite or sting livestock while they are grazing.
• Diseases and pests: pest and diseases manifestation on the pasture will reduce the leaf area.
These bring about stunted growth rate hence bringing down the quality and quantity of the
pasture.
• Cost: It is capital intensive to acquire land for pasture. Planting, weed control as well as
diseases and pests are not always easy to control and are capital intensive.
Management practices carried out in the pastures
a. Fencing: a good fence will preserve pastures for animal grazing
b. Application of fertilizers: fertilizers aids to improve soil fertility. This also helps grasses and
legumes to grow abundantly.
c. Weed control: Unintended grasses and legumes should be removed from the pasture.
d. Pest and Disease control: measures should be kept in place to guide against the outbreak of
pathogens.
e. Irritation: Proper irritation should be constructed in the farm land for adequate growth of
pastures during dry seasons and drought.
f. Adequate stocking: In situation where the pastures are overgrowing, the overgrown forage
should be stocked for periods when there will be shortfall.
g. Grazing density: The number of livestock to graze in a pasture at a particular point in time
should not be too much and too often as to over graze the pasture.

MAKING OF GOOD QUALITY HAY AND SILAGE

Silage and hay making are among the many ways of conserving or preserving forage crops for
future use. Forage conservation is a process that involves the maintenance or retaining of the
nutritive quality of forage material under a specified set of conditions for feeding of animals at a
later date when the forage materials are scarce. Conservation of forage aims at saving forage
crop against surplus supply for future use. Preservation only saves against spoilage in time of
plenty, so that there will be availability of forage during scarcity or during dry season.
Conservation aims at maintaining both quality and value of forage crop in times of abundance.
Ways of conserving forage
The aim of forage conservation is to protect or maintain surplus forage as efficient as possible
during the time of excess supply.
To achieve this effectively, some factors need to be addressed:
a. Farmers’ literacy level on ways and methods of conserving forage, is so low.
b. Unfavorable weather conditions prevents this process during the time of surplus
c. Livestock farming is usually at subsistence level, therefore most times farmers don’t see
conservation of forage as a worthwhile venture.
d. Sugar levels of most Kenyan forages are low making their conservation quite uneasy.
e. There are no or insufficient storage facilities for conserved forage unlike what is see in
developed countries.
Ways of conserving forage includes:
(i) Hay;
(ii) Silage;
(iii) Haylage;
(iv) Wastelage;
(v) Husklage.
Merits of forage conservation
There are many advantages of conserving forage for future to livestock;
a. They are used as feed to livestock in the period of scarcity
b. Livestock are induced to eat forage crops which they could not eat in the green fresh state.
c. During conservation the moisture level are lowered, hence they become tastier.
d. Cutting and conserving pasture allows for regrowth of pasture for continuous livestock grazing
e. Conservation saves cost.
Demerits of forage conservation
a. Tools and materials needed for the process of conservation are expensive.
b. Controlling the moisture level of pastures are not usually easy and a times leads to mould
growth and spoilage
c. There is lower palatability of forage conserved especially the silage
d. Often times matured grasses and legumes are harvested which leads to last of nutrients in the
processed hay or silage.
Hay
Hay can be grasses, legumes or other herbaceous plants that have been cut, dried and stored for
use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing animals such as cattle, horse, goat and sheep. Hay
is defined as dried herbage of 8-15% moisture level. Hay is a dried fodder, green in colour with
moisture not more than 18%. They are grasses or legumes harvested dried and stored, clean and
palatable. It is the commonest method of conserving pasture. Some examples of plants used for
hay making include.
Rhodes grass (Cynodon Spp), guinea grass (Panicum Maximum) Gamba grass (Andropogon
Spp) centro (Centrosema pubercence).
Methods of making hay
Hay making in Kenya varies from one ecological zone to the other, due to rainfall pattern and
stage of forage growth. It is ideal to make hay in September for Sudan savanna areas November
for guinea savanna region (southern) December /January for rainforest zones. The act of making
good hay involves sun drying in dry weather. Though in developed countries drying can be
achieve through the use of machines like barn dryers.
a. Harvesting of forage should be done in early hours of the day. The plant should not be matured
at the time of harvesting
b. After harvesting, the forage are left in the field to wilt or cure for about 4-5 hours. The hay
rake is usually use to turn the forage to ensure even distribution of sun effects.
c. Sunning continues until the moisture level reduces to 15-20%. It is best to rapidly dry the
forage with minimal rain and sun effect so that the nutrients lost will be minimal.
d. The building and storage of hay is very important, in that high level of moisture in the bailed
hay will result to mould and fungi growth and subsequently the hay will be unpalatable and
harmful to the livestock.
Processes involved in hay making
These are steps involved in the acts of preparing hay from forage.
a. Harvesting: It is ideal to harvest forage at easily hours of the day and before flowering or
teasling.
b. Sunning: Sunny weather is needed for curing of hay without our exposure to sun or rain. In
making hay, short curing time is very essential to reduced rate of nutrient lost.
c. Tedding: This is the act of shaking turned upside down with a hay rake. This is done before
the hay is completely dried to and shattering of the leaves and over exposure to the sun.
d. Bailing should be done once the hay is completely dried. This involves compacting the dried
forage crops so as to exclude as much air as possible.
Types of hay
a. Legume hay: These are made from leguminous plants with higher amounts of total digestive
nutrient. It provides better quality and higher content of digestible crude protein. They are richer
in nutrients like carotene, Vitamin, A, D and E.
b. Grass hay or non-legume hay: Are less palatable when compared with legume hay. Due to the
nature of plant used, loss of nutrient is usually minimal, but they are lower in nutrient level when
compared with the leguminous hay.
c. Mixed hay: The palatability of this type of hay depends on the type of fodder crops used.
Usually it is a mixture of both grasses and legumes. Their nutritional composition is usually
better than non- legume hay.
Qualities of a good hay
a. A good hay should have plenty leaves and less stems of plant
b. It should be free from weeds, retaining its green colour.
c. It should be free from dust and soil materials
d. It should be free from mould.
e. It should be palatable to the livestock.
Silage making
Silage is a fermented product of green forages where the acids produced by anaerobic
fermentation of the sugars found in the forages, acids in preserving them. Silage are moist
livestock feed that is produced by the storage of moist forage, grain, grain by- products or agro-
industrial by products in the presence of acid and absence of oxygen. The act of making silage is
not very common in Nigeria except in organised dairy farms, few governmental institution and
research establishments. Silage making involves the preservation of green herbage of desired
nutritional value in a fresh or wilted form with minimal loss of quality and nutrients. Examples
of forage crops that can be used in making silage include: Elephant grass, Gamba grass, Guinea
corn, maize, millet, cowpea, mucuna and soya bean.
Types of silage
Basically, silage are grouped based on the materials used in producing the silage.
It can also be grouped based on the material used in fermentation process.
Classification based on material used in the production process we have;
a. Grass silage which is produced from grass
b. Legume-Grass silage is made from a mixture of grasses and legumes. It is usually high in
protein and mineral content.
c. Grain-type silage; made with grains of cereals like sorghum corn silage.
Classification based on additives used;
a. Lactate silage: There the unwilted grasses and cereal crops are dominantly fermented by lactic
acid bacteria. They have low pH of about 3.7- 4.2. But lactate silage are high in non-soluble
protein, with low levels of soluble carbohydrates, which can result in high ammonia
concentration in rumen, therefore bringing about poor rumen utilization of silage.
b. Acetate silage: These have high levels of acetic acid, and relatively low levels of lactic acid.
Deamination of amino acids is usually extensive and consequently ammonia levels of these
silage are higher that of lactate silage.
c. Butyrate silage: This type of silages is usually fermented by clostridia with pH value range of
5 to 6. Those clostridia breakdown mostly amino acids leading to the production of butyrate
silage that is rich in ammonia
d. Wilted silage: Usually the crop is wilted before it is ensiled in the silo. In this type of size
there is minimal clostridia activity and hence low level of butyrate acid and effluence.
e. Deteriorated silage: These silages are made with continuous infiltration of air during the
storage period in the silo which brings about growth of aerobic micro-organisms which break
down organic matter to release organic acids, alcohol and sugars that are oxidized.
f. Overheated silages: These are product of over wilted materials ensiled in bunker or stack silos
without adequate consolidation heat (high temperature) above 550C reduces protein digestibility.
Overheated silages are usually brown or black in colour though palatable are very low
nutritionally.
Characteristics of a good silage:
Silage making is usually achieved by ensiling mass sufficient concentration of lactic acid
produced due to the presences of microbes found within the chopped leaves and plant stems. A
good silage has these physical attributes:
• It is greenish-yellow to brownish-yellow in colour. The brown colour in the silage is due to
phaneophytin (pigment) a magnesium free derivative from chlorophyll.
• It should be palatable pleasant taste and good aroma or flavour.
• It should have a mild acidic taste, no mould, not slimy or rotten.
Chemical traits of a good silage
- The pH should be 4.0-5.0 ideally
- The volatile fatty acids in the silage should generally lie within 80- 120g/kg DM of
lactic acid, 0.5-0.8% acetic acid, butyric acid of less than 0.2- 2.5%
- Its temperature should be about 29 to 35 °C, with low level of effluent.
Methods of making silage
The process of making silage includes these steps:
a. Harvesting and wilting: The forage crops are harvested using machetes or machines
(harvesters). The forage is allowed to wilt so as to reduce the moisture content and thereby
increase the carbohydrate content lowering the bacterial actions. Wilting is done at least two
days before ensiling. Wilting reduces the rates of effluent from the silage.
b. Chopping: The forage are usually chopped before. Chopping aids to ensure rapid exclusion of
air. Ideally 1.3 cm or less is better so as to increase the surface area for micro-organisms to act.
Another advantage of smaller chops is that it increases the bulk density of the silage in the silo.
c. Filling the silo: there are various types of silos that can be used for ensiling silages. They are;
conventional upright silos, gas tight or seal silos, pit silo etc.
d. Exclusion of air; chopped materials should be properly and tightly compacted manually or
mechanically with tractors, rollers or bullocks to eliminate air. Exclusion of air helps to create an
anaerobic condition for fermentation process in the silo.
e. Additives and preservatives: Addition of additives is not always essential. Additives used for
this purpose includes molasses, dried ground cereal grains. While preventives like sodium met
bisulphate, antibiotic, sodium chlorides, formaldehyde, organic acids. Additives aids to absorb
moisture and to initiate fermentation and improve palatability or fresh grasses and legumes used
in silage. While preservatives aids in sterilizing and regulating microbial activity or acidify the
silage and also improves palatability.
f. Sealing of the Silo: Silos are sealed after consolidation with or without additives the silos are
air tightly closed to initiate the fermentation process. Items commonly used for this purpose
includes polyethylene, plastic sheet, sand and bale of straw.
Silage is usually sealed to prevent entrance of rain water and re-entry and circulation of air
storage. Silage is usually ready for animal consumption after about 4 to 6 weeks.

Factors affecting the supply of hay and silage in Kenya

The distribution and availability of conversed forage in the country is usually influenced by so
many factors. Supplying hay and silage is usually affected by
• Production cost: capital is needed to lease or rent lands, plant, management as well as process
the forage into hay or silage. These high costs of production in vertically transcends into the
selling price of hay and silage. Thus, making them very expensive to get a good quality
processed silage and hay.
• Natural Conditions: like natural disaster, weather and temperature also affects the supply of hay
and silage. Adverse weather conditions like flood and droughts makes it difficult to plant as well
as to envisage the best times to harvest and dry forage for hay and silage production, therefore
reducing supply.
• Technology: unlike most advanced countries, modern tools are currently being used to process
hay and silage. These advanced technologies make the processing of hay and silage easy and
massive in volume of turn out. But in Nigeria, these technologies are not yet available therefore
hampering the process of supplying conserved forage.
• Transportation: Hay and silage are voluminous in nature, this bulky nature makes it quite
difficult to move them from one region to another. Transportation cost also adds to the price of
hay and silage, hence making them expensive for poor farmers in Nigeria to purchase.
Hay and silage marketing
In developed countries hay and silage are usually graded and price tagged for sale (in dollars per
ton) Some factors play critical roles in the marketing of forage like; quality of forage, customers
need, prompt delivery as well as steady supply.
The essential principles for hay and silage marketing includes;
• Determine where the market opportunities are located weather local, regional or national. This
will help in meeting up with the market standards. So as to sell at a better and quicker rate.
• Produce high quality hay and Silage; the relative feed value (RFU) is a standard domestic and
foreign industrial measure for quality is about 150. However knowing the market will help to
determine the exact RFU. Again moisture content also varies among markets, although the dryer
the better. Export markets for hay and silage require 12% moisture or less while domestic market
is 14-18% to ensure high product standards, nutritional values of feed (hay/silage) in terms of
crude protein, phosphorus and total digestible nutrients are very essential.
• Storage facilities; a good storage system will ensure constant supply of hay and silage to
customers.
• Advertisement is very important in the current level of advancement in the world today.
Adverts creates awareness and it is an important marketing tool.