Practices for successful cultivation of rabi fodders

摘要

Green fodders are the cheapest source of nutrients. The feeding cost of milk production can be considerably reduced by substituting high quality fodders for concentrates. At present, the fodder supply (31.0 kg/animal/day) in Punjab is far away from the actual requirement of 40-50kg/animal/ day. Since no extra area is likely to become available for fodder production in Punjab, production per unit time can be raised through adoption of improved varieties and production technologies. The fodder crops ofrabi season can be categorized into legume and non-legume fodders. The production technology of rabi fodders is discussed as follows: Berseem: The improved varieties of berseem are BL1, BL10, BL42 and BL43, which yield on an average, 380, 410, 440, 390quintals of green fodder per acre respectively. BL10 is a longer duration variety and BL 42, BL 43 provide superior nutritional quality green fodder up to first week of June. The varieties BL 42 and BL 43 are having high seed yield potential.