Many types of plants have the potential to be a source of livestock feed. One that you need to consider is cowpea. Even though it is popular in some countries, it is still okay to ask if is cowpea good for cattle. Because many more plants play a crucial role in helping cattle grow. Growing cowpeas can be an alternative because planting these nuts can improve the physical, chemical, hydrological, and biological properties of the soil, being used as food for cattle as well.
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Checking the Facts: Is Cowpea Good for Cattle?
Grazing is still a mainstay in meeting the needs of livestock feed, unfortunately, not all types of feed contain complete and sufficient ingredients for growth. That’s where the idea is needed to fulfill the nutrition in livestock by choosing a better type of feed.
Although not new, cowpea can be an alternative for you. Choosing cowpeas turns out to have other benefits apart from being a food source, planting cowpeas will help with soil restoration. Thus, two functions are running at the same time.
If you are interested, you can skim through some information about this cowpea. The cowpea cultivation process is easy enough. Farmers can use cleared land, and dry seeds planted with a canopy system. Another fact, this bean has tolerance on arid land, during the rainy season cowpea plants have double benefits. During the shoots, young leaves are potentially used as vegetable ingredients in various delicious dishes.
Cowpea Plant Characteristics
Cowpeas is a type of plant that is resistant to hot areas and this includes plants that grow quickly and are harvested. On average, cowpeas are 60 cm tall. Of course, this depends on the type and area of planting, on average that much. Because in planting any type of plant there will be influencing factors some of the cowpeas that are planted are very likely just like vines or not tall enough.
Cowpea is very good at adapting, for example during the dry season to get moisture in dry soil, their roots can grow up to 2.5 meters high. Generally, there are two types of growing cowpeas, all depending on their purpose and needs. So, is cowpea good for cattle?
Before discussing that, you need to know if the type of cowpea that is grown for animal feed is generally the vine type. This type is also suitable for cover crops before changing to other types of plants. Shrub type is suitable if the intended planting is for the nuts or leaves or in other words, you prefer direct harvesting.
Several Facts of Cowpea Goodness
Here are several facts about the goodness of cowpea especially for cattle.
- The quality of the cowpeas will be lower if harvested at the end of the season, but you will get more forage. Even with low forage quality, this condition is better than other tropical grasses, so breeders don’t need to worry about feedinf their cattle with cowpeas.
- Good cropping management will produce high-value crude protein, 19% to 24%. It all depends on which stage of the harvest you pick it.
- Farm animals in most countries have consumed cowpea and found no problems in palatability. Making silage is one of the best ways to maintain the quality of cowpea, the result will be similar to soybean silage in a stalked texture.
- There is an increase in body weight in the types of livestock even in cattle that are breastfeeding. Of course, this is a good thing that needs to be developed.
More about Cowpea for Cattle
Cowpea plants used for annual legumes have many good benefits. Cowpea characteristics can survive in dry areas so cowpea forage can make a positive contribution to the growth of livestock even though they grow in dry areas. Several significant results after cowpea consumption have encouraged more breeders to choose this plant.
Another use of cowpea is as a plant green manure which is rich in nutrients and can improve soil conditions. High-quality forage is all that livestock needs to grow well. Besides grazing directly, make silage from cowpea without reducing their quality. A crop rotation system is also recommended using cowpeas where you can also sow other types of crops such as corn.
No Waste from Cowpea
The process of picking young leaves of cowpea for vegetables can be used as an alternative source of food, including young fruit. The dried fruit can be harvested for making porridge, tempeh and fried peanuts, and various other useful preparations. The rest of the plants can be used by livestock so that no part of the plant is wasted. Storing cowpea after harvest in dry conditions can last up to one year in a closed container. This method is used to reserve seeds for the next stage of planting.
The nutritional value of having high vegetable protein is that is cowpea good for cattle. This is a step to take advantage of the diversity of types of agricultural commodities. The more unproductive vacant land can be planted with cowpea which is tolerant to lack of water conditions with maximum yields.