Beef cattle production and management
Practical Action
Caution: This mixture should not be fed to calves, and other immature ruminants or non-
ruminants.
Growing fodder crops in low rainfall areas
Due to declining rainfall amounts being received, our grazing areas do not provide adequate (in
quality and quantity) feed throughout the year to support livestock production.
The following fodder crops can be grown:
Cereals/grasses
Sorghum both forages and grain type
Millet both forages and grain type
Rapoko
Bana grass
Star grass
Kikuyu grass
Legumes
Guar beans
Cow peas
Dicholis bean or lablab
Velvet bean
Pigeon peas
Forage tree legumes
Leucaena leucocephala
Pigeon pea
Land preparation
- There is need for fuII seed bed preparation
- They are adapted to a wide range of soil
- Good drainage is necessary for good growth
- Pennisetums and sorghum do best in deep fertile soils be they sandy or clay.
- Sorghum and legumes should be planted when you receive effective rains
- Planting is done annually except for pennisetums, which are perennial crops and they are only
replanted when gaps are noticed
There is need for proper seed bed preparation
How to plant
Sorghum is planted from seed whilst pennisetums are planted from rooted tillers or stem
cuttings.
Pennisetums are planted in furrows or holes dug along rows.
If rooted tillers are used, all roots plus one node should be in the hole and one node
outside, whereas two nodes must be in the hole and one outside if the stem cuttings are
used.
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