Jowar, Berseem or Maize Silage? Choosing Green Fodder Safely

Jowar (chari), berseem and maize are the three green fodders most Indian farmers know. Each is good feed in the right season and the right form, and each has a risk that every farmer should know about.

Green jowar: watch out for prussic acid. Young jowar plants, regrowth after cutting, and jowar stressed by drought can contain prussic acid (HCN), which is poisonous to cattle and can kill quickly. The safe rules: do not feed very young or drought-stunted jowar, wait until the crop is well grown (around flowering) before cutting, and do not let hungry animals graze young regrowth. Ensiling and proper drying reduce the risk, but they do not remove the need for these rules.

Berseem: excellent protein, but not alone. Berseem is the king of winter (rabi) green fodder, rich in protein and loved by animals. Fed alone in large amounts, especially wet and fresh, it can cause bloat. Mix it with dry fodder or a cereal fodder like maize silage. Berseem has little sugar, so it is hard to make into silage on its own; it is best fed fresh in season.

Maize: the most reliable year-round base. Maize has enough sugar to ferment easily, gives a very large yield per acre, and its cob adds energy. Whole-plant maize silage at the milk stage carries 7.9% crude protein on a dry-matter basis (NDDB), and ICAR-IIMR trials found a 10–20% rise in milk with whole-plant maize silage. Because it keeps for 12+ months when sealed, it is the base that stays the same in every season.

A good season-by-season plan. In winter, feed berseem with maize silage and some dry fodder: the protein of berseem and the energy of maize complement each other. In summer and in the October–November gap, when green jowar is risky and berseem is over, maize silage becomes the main green fodder. In the monsoon, use fresh green fodder when it is plentiful and save silage for the gaps.

What about bajra and oats? Both are useful fodder crops and can be ensiled. Oats are a good winter green fodder in the north. Bajra is hardy where water is short. Like jowar, feed them when well grown, not as stunted young plants.

How much maize silage? A milking cow or buffalo of 400–450 kg needs 18–25 kg a day as its green-fodder base, with 4–6 kg of dry fodder and concentrate according to milk. When berseem is in season, you can reduce the silage by the weight of berseem fed.

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