Fodder Production and Technology

Objectives

1. Promote the students knowledge of the most important forages for the Azores and Mainland Portugal.

2. To highlight the importance of the ideal moment to harvest the forage and the harvest techniques to obtain the best yields and quality

3. Recognize the harvesting techniques and the needed equipment.

4. Acknowledge bad or good silages and hays and to be able to identify the reasons for that.

5. To have a critical opinion about the silage and hay additives available in the market.

6. To be able to choose the most appropriated method of storage for a particular farm and to implement it.

Program

1. Main forage species (corn, sorghum, lucerne, cereals and herbage grasses)

2. Yield and optimum forage harvesting stage

3. Pre harvesting treatments (wilted and low moisture)

4. Harvesting techniques and needed farm machinery

5. Storage facilities

6. Aerobic and anaerobic phases

7. Main hay production problems

8. Additives: eventual advantages of its utilization

9. Feedout phase

10. Main field and storage losses

11. Hay and silages quality, parameters of evaluation

12. Artificial dehydration

Teaching Methodologies

Theoretical classes are taught in class for all chapters.

There are field classes, for the observation of the crops, the harvesting and storage techniques. Elaboration of mini-silos and hay in controlled environment. Laboratory classes for forage analyses before and after the conservations processes took place.

Bibliography

Collins, M. and Owens, V. (2003) Preservation of Forage as Hay or Silage (chapter 19). In: Barnes R.F.; Nelson, C.J.;

Collins M. and Moore K. (eds) FORAGES an Introduction to Grassland Agriculture, Iowa State Press, EUA, pp. 443-471.

McDonald, P. (1981) The biochemistry of silage. John Wiley &Sons, Ltd.,UK, pp. 226.

Wilkinson, J.M. (2005) SILAGE. Chalcombe Publications, UK.