Fodder


Fodder, also called provender, is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food given to the animals, rather than that which they forage for themselves. Fodder includes hay, straw, silage, compressed and pelleted feeds, oils and mixed rations, and sprouted grains and legumes. Most animal feed is from plants, but some manufacturers add ingredients to processed feeds that are of animal origin.
The worldwide animal feed trade produced 1.245 billion tons of compound feed in 2022 according to an estimate by the International Feed Industry Federation, 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, can also serve as human food; those that cannot, such as grassland grass, may be grown on land that can be used for crops consumed by humans.

Common plants specifically grown for fodder

In the past, bovine spongiform encephalopathy 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 feed source may cause economic losses due to sickness or death of the animals. The US Department of Health and Human Services regulates drugs of the Veterinary Feed Directive type that can be present within commercial livestock feed.

Droughts

Increasing intensities and frequencies of drought events put rangeland agriculture under pressure in semi-arid and arid geographic areas. Innovative emergency fodder production concepts have been reported, such as bush-based animal fodder production in Namibia. During extended dry periods, some farmers have used woody biomass fibre from encroacher bush as their primary source of cattle feed, adding locally available supplements for nutrients as well as to improve palatability.

Sprouted grains as fodder

Fodder in the form of Sprouted cereal grains such as barley, and legumes can be grown in commercial quantities. Sprouted grains can significantly increase the nutritional value of the grain compared with feeding the ungerminated grain to stock. They use less water than traditional forage, making them ideal for drought conditions. Sprouted barley and other cereal grains can be grown hydroponically in a carefully controlled environment. Hydroponically-grown sprouted fodder at tall with a root mat is at its peak for animal feed. Although barley is a grain, barley sprouts are approved by the American Grassfed Association as livestock feed.

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