Important variables for foraging planning

Forage plant species such as grasslands become a balanced food for ruminant animals, since they have necessary nutritional elements such as fiber and protein that these animals need to fulfill their metabolic functions and thus maintain and produce. According to the aforementioned and taking into account that they are plant species that proliferate in our ecosystems, it can be said that they are the most economical food that can be supplied to these animal species.

In order for these species to meet the needs of cattle, they must be managed in an appropriate way so that they express their best performance of green matter and dry matter, these management can be agronomic taking into account that pastures are a crop and also zootechnical management related to the management of animals on surfaces cultivated with pastures. To achieve a good zootechnical management, a foraging planning should be established based on many variables such as the yield of the pasture, percentage of dry matter of the pasture among others to adjust the animal load and not incur in over or undergrazing.

In the audiovisual subject important variables are evident to perform the calculation of the animal load among them are the supply of dry matter which is the amount of dry matter available per animal unit, for this the live weight of the animal is taken into account, according to certain researchers and technicians, in addition to the work carried out in the field it is estimated that an animal consumes approximately between 3 and 4 % of matter per live weight of the animal, that means for example, that an animal of 400 kilos can consume between 12 and 16 kg of dry matter.

On the other hand, the dry matter yield of the pasture is also taken into account, which is expressed in kilograms of dry matter per hectare, this capacity is conditioned by both agronomic and zootechnical management and climatic conditions in a given ecosystem. By knowing the value of this important variable and establishing the supply of the animal, the adjustment of the animal load can be made, because the surfaces would be distributed depending on the amount of dry matter available in the forages, taking into account that the nutrients that the animal needs are stored in the dry matter.

In the same vein, determining the animal load per hectare on a farm, in colloquial terms, is nothing more than establishing a balance between the quantity and the number of animal units, because if the number of units is less than the amount of forage available, an undergrazing occurs, which is reflected in the decrease in the quality of a percentage of the grass that is not consumed by the animal since, it matures on the surface but we carry out a management by cutting the remaining pasture so that it has a growth adjusted to the grass that was cut by the animal.

It may also happen that the number of animal units is higher than the amount of forage available, in this case there would be an overgrazing, where the animals would consume the pastures in depth which may cause a degradation of the grass in the medium or long term, because the carbohydrate reserves accumulated by these plants in their roots will begin to be depleted and the growth tissues of these grasses may also be affected.

Dear readers, there are many aspects to address on these agricultural issues, because arable crops gave rise to the establishment of livestock farming in natural ecosystems, therefore, its importance transcends for a long time, but being a plant that produces food for cattle requires management such as fertilization, pest control, arvense control among others, therefore, the farmer must also become a farmer, because it needs to treat this plant as a crop so that the yields are appropriate and thus manage to maintain the production of milk and meat that meets the needs of the food market.