i was the first to advise farmers to shred napier enabling 100% consumption of the harvest. prior to this development, when napier grass was merely chopped, up to 80% of the harvest- mainly stalks, was wasted. this has been going on virtually from the time napier was considered a high-yielding pasture crop- WAY BACK IN THE 1930s!!! farmers have been shredding napier for only the past 5 years or so, and to date, there have been no nutritional studies on shredded napier. i believe this is necessary because contrary to past studies shredding has made available the carbohydrates stored in the stalks. this may disprove data that in the of feeding (chopped) napier, the animal gets most of its carbohydrates from the leaves. considering that more than 80% of the harvested weight is in the stalks, and if the majority of stored carbohydrates is in the stalk, this represents a change in the profile of the energy portions now made available by shredding. in fact, as the practice of shredding napier has now spread to thailand, there are anecdotal accounts of shredded napier capable of sustaining the energy requirements of livestock not normally fed pasture crops, e.g. hogs, poultry and even freshwater fish.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 05:37:24 +0000
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