ANP 304- Pasture

Pasture can be defined in many ways depending on purpose: · Pasture is defined as an area of land occupied with forage plant species either natural or planted by man for the purpose of providing qualitative feed to livestock at the right quantity. · It could refers to any forage specie valuable as livestock feed · It can also refer to an act of feeding; grazing or browsing animals on pasture plants or pastures. 3.2. Classification of Pasture Plants Pasture plants can be classified into the following: a) Grasses: These belong to the family Gramineae. They are characterized by high energy, low crude protein, fast growth rate, cylindrical stems and leaves. The leaves have parallel venation pattern and stem is hollow. They have fibrous rooting system with light and small seeds. Other related family members in this family include maize, millet sorghum, barley and rye. b) Legumes: These belong to three different families (Mimosoideae, Caesalpinoideae and Papilionaceae) depending on the nature and shape of their flowers. They have broad leaves with net venation pattern. They are herbaceous plants with flowers occurring mainly at the terminal buds. However, it is also possible to have flowers in other parts of the plant such as auxiliary branches. These flowers produce seeds in pods. Examples include Centrosema pascourum, Alysicarpus varginalis and Mucuna pruriens. c) Grazed Plants: These are short herbs that are consumed with both leaves and stems together. Examples include: Brachiaria ruziziensis, Sorghum almum (Columbus grass), Arachis pintoii and Digitaria smutsii. d) Browed Plants: These are woody plants whose leaves and twigs (soft stems and buds) are eaten while the woody stem is left uneaten. e.g. Leucaena leucocephala, Gliricidia sepium and Gmelina aborea. e) Annuals: These are plants that complete their life cycle within one growing season and survive the dry season as seeds. e.g. Chloris gayana, Brachiaria mulato II, Pennisetum purpureum and Hypherrania rufa. f) Biennials: These are plants that complete their life cycle in two seasons. First season is for vegetative growth and second season for reproductive growth. e.g. Panicum maximum (Elephant grass), Andropogon tectorum (Southern Gamba grass) and Cynodon dactylon (Bermuda grass).