Fodder Totally Explained

Everything about Fodder totally explained

In agriculture, fodder or animal feed is any foodstuff that's used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. Most animal feed is from plants but some is of animal origin. "Fodder" refers particularly to food given to the animals (including plants cut and carried to them), rather than that which they forage for themselves (see forage). It includes hay, straw, silage, compressed and pelleted feeds, oils and mixed rations, and also sprouted grains and legumes.
The worldwide animal feed industry consumed 635 million tons of feed (compound feed equivalent) in 2006, with an annual growth rate of about 2%. The use of agricultural land to grow feed rather than human food can be controversial; some types of feed, such as corn (maize), can also serve as human food, while others such as grass cannot. Some agricultural by-products which are fed to animals may be considered unsavory by human consumers.

Common plants specifically grown for fodder

Alfalfa (lucerne)
Barley
Birdsfoot trefoil
Brassicas
- Chau moellier
- Kale
- Rapeseed (Canola)
- Rutabaga (swede)
- Turnip
Clover
Grass
- False oat grass
- Fescue
- Bermuda grass
- Brome
- Heath grass
- Meadow grasses (from naturally mixed grassland swards)
- Orchard grass
- Ryegrass
- Timothy-grass
Maize (corn)
Millet
Oats
Sorghum
Soybeans
Trees (pollard tree shoots for "tree-hay")
Wheat

Types of fodder

Compound feed and premixes, often called "pellets" or "nuts"

Crop residues: stover, copra, straw, sugar beet waste

Fish meal

Freshly cut grass and other forage plants

Meat and bone meal (now illegal in many areas due to risk of BSE)

Molasses

Oil cake and press cake

Oligosaccharides

Conserved forage plants: hay and silage

Seaweed

Seeds and grains, either whole or prepared by crushing, milling etc

Sprouted grains and legumes

Yeast extract

Health concerns

In the past, mad cow disease spread through the inclusion of ruminant meat and bone meal in cattle feed due to prion contamination. This practice is now banned in most countries where it has occurred. Some animals have a lower tolerance for spoiled or moldy fodder than others, and certain types of molds, toxins, or poisonous weeds inadvertently mixed into a food source may cause economic losses due to sickness or death of the animals.

Sprouted grains as fodder

Fodder in the form of sprouted grains and legumes can be grown in a small-scale environment. Sprouted grains can greatly increase the nutritional value of the grain compared with feeding the "raw" (ungerminated) grain to stock.

Further Information

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