QUALITY OF HAY MADE FROM GREEN FOLIAGES

Green fodders are considered to be the most important factor forthe dairy industry as theyplay key role in changing dairy farming into a profitable business. So, there is an urgent need for preservation of nutrients from green forages available during the peak period for feeding livestock during the lean period. Like silage,another way of preserving nutrientsis topractice it in the form of hay. The principle of hay making is to preserve the nutritional value of forages by drying it to a level at which the activity of microbial decomposers is inhibited.The moisture content of 10-12% is the optimum level for halting the microbial activity (Balwinder Kumar et al. 2019).To mitigate the problem of animal feed shortage during the lean period, the conservation of forage appears to be the only alternative. Hybrid Napier grass (RBN 9) and Cowpea(EC 4216 ) resulted in good hay with 76.4% dry matter and 6.4% relative water content(RWC) and 91.8% dry matter and 1.5% relative water content(RWC)respectively when dried in Sun for 6 days.