Forage planting technology of small-tailed Han sheep

Small-tailed Han sheep is a meat and fur dual-purpose sheep breed in China, and it is a herbivorous animal of the subfamily Bovidae, in which forage accounts for a large proportion. In the breeding of small-tailed Han sheep, in addition to using some crop straw as its forage, we can also plant some forage to feed. Let's take a look at the planting technology of small-tailed Han sheep.

Variety types of forage grass

There are many kinds of small-tailed Han sheep forage, including Gramineae, Leguminosae, Compositae, Cruciferae, Chenopodiaceae, Amaranthaceae, Cyperaceae and so on. Leguminous forage is an annual or perennial herb with straight roots, strong main roots, deep soil penetration, nodules on the roots, fixed nitrogen in the air, and soil maintenance. It contains more crude protein, calcium and carotene, and has high nutritional value. It can replace part of the concentrate, but some of them contain saponins. It is easy to cause swelling disease during green feeding or grazing, stem and leaf drying is uneven, leaves are easy to fall off, and it is difficult to prepare hay. In addition, it is not suitable to silage alone, it is best to mix silage with grasses. Grasses are annual or perennial herbs, with roots, many growth points, strong grazing tolerance, consistent drying rate of stems and leaves, leaves are not easy to fall off, suitable for preparing hay, contain more carbohydrates, and are suitable for silage.

Soil preparation before sowing of forage grass

Small-tailed Han sheep forage is the same as crops, intensive cultivation can achieve high yield. Most of the forage seeds are very small, the top soil ability is weak, and the seedling growth is slow. Soil preparation before sowing is the key to good seedling and full seedling. The main measures of soil preparation before sowing are turning and raking pressure. In general, the mature stubble land can be sown directly after breaking the stubble ridge with a plough, while the raw wasteland or soil consolidation land must be turned 20-25 cm deep with a tractor, and it is better to apply rotten farm manure and available phosphorus and potash fertilizer. After ploughing, it must be raked and pressed (with disc rake and ballast) and cut into large pieces of soil to tighten the topsoil and level the soil layer, which is conducive to preserving soil moisture and creating good soil conditions for forage sowing, seedling emergence, growth and development.

The sowing method of forage grass

The main results are as follows: 1. Sowing time: spring sowing in years with good water conditions or land with irrigation conditions, otherwise sowing in summer when Rain Water is coming, but not later than the first ten days of July, so that the seedlings can survive the winter safely. Generally speaking, it should be determined according to the comprehensive factors such as forage variety, soil, moisture and so on.

2. Seed treatment: forage seeds need to be treated before sowing to improve the germination rate, rhizobium inoculation should also be carried out, grass seeds need to be treated with awn removal, hard seeds are generally treated by rice grinder or stone grinding, which is beneficial to water absorption, awn removal can be crushed by awn removal machine or pressure mill, and rhizobium can be mixed with rhizobium to mix seeds. The root nodules of the same kind of forage grass can also be collected and crushed and mixed into the seeds after air-drying.

3. Sowing methods: strip sowing, hole sowing, sowing, seedling raising and transplanting can be used. Strip sowing has the advantages of fast sowing speed, uniform sowing depth and neat emergence of seedlings, which is convenient for field management such as ploughing, weeding and fertilization. Hole sowing methods can be used in slopes with engineering measures, such as bamboo trenches and fish scale pits, as well as steeper slopes. Broadcasting is recommended for use when the area is large, using a supplementary seeder or aircraft. Seedling transplanting is generally suitable for higher forage varieties, and can be used when the planting area is small or when the manpower is sufficient.

4. Sowing quantity: the sowing quantity should be determined according to the biological characteristics of forage grass, seed size, quality, soil fertility, soil preparation quality, sowing time and climatic conditions.

5. Sowing depth: the sowing depth should make the seeds come into contact with the moist soil and prevent the moisture from evaporating after covering the soil. As most grass seeds are small, the top soil capacity is weak, and the cover should not be too deep, generally 2-3 cm is suitable. It can follow the principles that large seeds should be deep, small seeds should be shallow, loose soil should be deep, clayey soil should be shallow, soil should be deep when dry, water moisture should be shallow, spring drought should be deep, and summer rainy season should be shallow.

Field management of forage grass

1. Weeding and weeding: the grass grows slowly in the seedling stage and is often submerged by weeds. Weeds can be weeded by pulling, shoveling, wading and other methods. It is better to be early than late. Generally, weeds lose their competitiveness after the weeds are closed.

2. Rational irrigation: Gramineae needs a large amount of water from budding to flowering and legume from budding to flowering, which is the main irrigation period. The forage grass mowed many times a year should be irrigated in time after each mowing, and should also be irrigated in summer days and when the drought is serious. Irrigation with frozen water before winter is beneficial to the safe overwintering and green growth of the forage grass in the early spring of the following year.

3. Timely fertilization: in addition to applying base fertilizer when sowing, forage grass should be fertilized after each cutting, and it can also be combined with intertillage and irrigation. Grass grass is mainly nitrogen fertilizer, legume grass has the function of nitrogen fixation, except for a small amount of nitrogen fertilizer at seedling stage, phosphorus and potassium fertilizer should be used in other periods.

4. Pest control: forage grass has strong resistance to diseases and insect pests, and the occurrence of diseases and insect pests is less than that of field crops. The prevention and control methods follow the principle of "prevention first and comprehensive control", and strengthen seed quarantine and agricultural prevention and control.

5. Cold prevention management: in relatively cold areas, some forage varieties are difficult to survive the winter, so they are protected against the cold before the beginning of winter. The main method is to use a plough to cover the roots of the forage grass before winter, which can generally prevent frostbite.

6. Cutting and utilization: timely mowed forage can be used for green feeding, sun-drying hay and silage for use in case of feed shortage in winter and spring. The forage yield and quality are different in different growth stages. Determining the optimal cutting period should not be based solely on yield or quality, but on the combination of the two, and must be determined on the basis of the yield of nutrients per unit area.