Substrate Selection And Layout Optimization For Fresh Grass Production Using Grains

Feeding livestock with fresh grass produced from grains is a new program to deal with the shortage of high-quality forage in the markets,together with the characteristics of high nutritional value,good palatability and short production cycle.However,the substrate material was one of the most important factors affecting the production efficiency and benefit of fresh grasses.For example,using filter paper as the germination substrate material for large-scale producing fresh grass would make high production cost,to some extent,it was difficult to separate filter paper from seedlings,which consumed large manpower and material resources.In turn,if there were no germination substrates,the seed germination and seedlings growth would both perform poor Therefore,in this study,there were two factors were considered during the procedure of producing fresh grasses,one was the type of germination substrates,and another was the ratios of different substrates.All experiments were conducted in the artificial climate chamber of the College of Grassland,Resource and Environment,Inner Mongolia Agricultural University.Based on comparing the characteristics of seed germination and seedling growth among different treatments,it is good at coming up with a methodology to optimize the procedure of producing fresh grasses,and solved the problems of high production cost.The main results showed as follows:(1)According to the treatment of the pre-experiment,it is feasible to produce fresh grass using grains under different germination substrates,such as utilize straw and other low-value materials,but the substrates need to be sterilized before utilization.Sterilizing the substrates under boiling water for 120 minutes,could reduce the ratio of seed mildew.(2)After screening,when corn straw is used as substrate for germination and seedling cultivation,it is recommended to adopt the layout method of placing seeds between substrates,selecting coarse substrate with a length of about 2cm,and laying seeds in the middle of substrate with a material ratio of 3∶1 for wheat and 4∶1 for corn for fresh grass production.(3)By measuring the nutritional value of fresh grass under different substrate materials and at different growth stages,it was found that the best harvest period of fresh grass production was 3d～7d.During this period,the nutrient content of fresh grass was high and tended to be stable.Corn straw,millet straw,soybean straw,reed straw and caragana korshinskii straw were all available,but corn straw,soybean straw and millet straw were better than the other two straws.Compared with other substrate materials,soybean straw has higher content of nutrients,while fresh grasses grew better under substrates with corn straw or millet straw.The seedlings grew poor under Caragana korshinskii straw substrate with high nutrient value.Due to the high fiber content,reed straw was not suitable for substrate during producing fresh grasses.(4)In terms of the cost of producing fresh grass,it was economically feasible to produce fresh grass using grains together with utilize straw or other low-value materials.Compared with the price of other forage grasses in the markets,the relative price of fresh grass produced by crop grains was low,and the substrate material was easy to obtain.In conclusion,it is suitable for large-scale production of fresh grass with reducing production cost,and saving manpower and material resources.