Napier grass is a useful feed for dairy animals in Zambia; it is fast growing, drought tolerant, perennial and can grow up to four metres tall.
It is suitable as a ‘cut and carry’ feed in the wet season and at the start of the dry season.
Ideally, Napier grass should be grown close to your kraal because this makes it easy to ‘cut and carry’ and to fertilise with manure from your dairy animals.
We recommend planting Napier grass in individual basins because the basins capture water, which helps the plants grow.
Basins should be 30 centimetres by 30cm wide and 15cm deep.
Ensure 80cm between rows and 50cm between the plants in each row.
Only take cuttings from healthy, mature Napier grass plants because you want new shoot and root systems to develop easily.
Cuttings must have four nodes with buds intact.
When cutting the material, cut the bottom of the plant at an angle.
Ensure you plant your Napier grass cuttings the right way up.
Plant them on a slant to ensure two of the four nodes are buried into the soil to form roots and the other two are exposed to form shoots.
Napier grass can be interplanted with Desmodium, lablab or velvet beans to increase protein content and make your animal feed more nutritious.
In a good rain season, Napier grass will take two to three months to grow ready for the first harvest.
As your plants grow, it is extremely important to control weeds because otherwise they will compete with your crop for nutrients.
If you have access to water, you can irrigate Napier grass during the dry season to increase production.
Harvest your Napier grass by cutting it at waist height (about 90cms) when it is succulent, palatable and easily digested by cattle.
If left to grow over a metre, Napier grass becomes woody, can be difficult to chop and is hard for cows to digest.
Cut your Napier grass at least 5cm above the ground to allow for regrowth and to minimise contamination with soil.
Add cow dung to each clump of Napier grass left behind after harvesting – this helps boost the ‘shooting out’ of new growth.
If fertilised and managed well, a good crop of Napier grass will provide at least three cuttings during the rainy season and an additional two cuttings after the rains have gone.
The crop grows very well when fertilised with farmyard manure. When planting Napier grass, put two shovels of farmyard manure, or 40 grams of Compound D (equivalent to about four tablespoons), into each basin.
Afterwards, at the start of each rain season, top-dress the plants with urea and water, to aid absorption into the soil, or apply one to two shovels of farmyard manure.
Napier grass is best fed chopped into three-to-five-centimetre pieces. Use feeding troughs or racks when feeding your cows Napier grass to prevent contamination with mud, urine or dung and avoid feed wastage.
A 400-kilogram dairy cow requires 30kgs per day of fresh Napier grass during the early dry season.
For more information on growing Napier grass, see zambiadairy.com/fact-sheets.