fodder

Fodder factory set up by an individual farmer to produce customized cattle feed

In agriculture, fodder or animal feed is any foodstuff that is 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

Round hay bales

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

Types of fodder

various types of legume (left) and grass (right) fodder

• Compound feed and premixes, often called pellets, nuts or (cattle) cake.
• Crop residues: stover, copra, straw, chaff, 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

Barley is a crop sometimes grown for fodder

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. Sprouted barley and other cereal grains can be grown hydroponically in a carefully controlled environment. Under hydroponic conditions, sprouted fodder at 150mm tall with a 50mm root mat is at its peak for animal feed.

See also

Look up fodder in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fodder

• Forage
• Pasture
• Grain
• Cannon fodder (metaphorical usage)
• Factory farming

External links

• Animal feed legislation and guidance
• Animal Feed and Ingredients Glossary
• FAO Feed Safety guidelines
• Feed - Biosecurity Guide