New Generation Forages

Date:07-16-2018


Forages are an important part of animal diets for profitable dairy farming and animal rearing. Feeding is approximately 60% of total dairy farm expenses. Across the globe a large number of crops are used for forage feeding purposes. Normally these are traditional forages which are low yielding, have low nutritional value and hence have negative impact in farm productivity. Traditional forage crops are not tolerant to drought and climate changes. Additionally, there is a huge fodder deficit in various countries. According to the global research data the green fodder deficit is reaching from 40% to 60% and dry fodder to 20%. Along with roughages the estimation for concentrate feed deficit is around 25% to 50%. The deficits are more in under-developing and developing countries, whilst self-sufficient in developed countries. Hence there is a need for high quality and high yield forages across geographies to meet the growing demand for animal feed.


Global forage market

New generation forage crops are the great new opportunity in the seed industry. Most of the cover crops are now becoming forage crops with a high value driven component in dairy farming. Forages are again becoming a great business opportunity with the estimated market value to be between USD $17 billion to USD $20 billion by 2022, with CAGR of 8%. Winter based forages are the dominant crops with more than 70% of the gross revenue in the global forage seed market. Legumes like Alfalfa and Clovers are the front runners. The Asia and Oceanic regions are dominant by Forage Sorghums and Clovers. Key drivers for the forage business are an increase in demand in high yield and high nutritive forages since the demand for milk and dairy products is increasing along with the population. Additionally, an increase in the crossbred animal across the developing countries requires higher quality forages creating more demand. The dairy industry is a growing sector therefore there is the opportunity for forage crops.

Innovative new generation forages

Global climate changes creating huge impact on forage production, grazing lands and pastures. Raising temperatures, erratic rainfall, heavy traffic on grazing lands and poor maintenance of pastures leads to low fodder availability to the animals. Forages experts like Advanta Seeds started new breeding programs to research and develop new hybrids to improve forage production. Advanta Seeds breeding programs are focused on high yield, nutrition, highly palatable fodder quality. Working in partnership with dairy farmers Advanta Seeds’ research demonstrated that feeding animals with high quality fodders enhances animals health, milk productivity, lactation period and timely pregnancy.

Advanta Seeds new generation forages are highly nutritive and are replacing traditional forages, like clover, oats and grasses segment, that contain low value for animals. Advanta Seeds highly nutritive forages include Sweet Sorghum (Sugargraze), Hybrid Pearl Millet (Nutrifeed), high yield Brown Mid Rib SSG (BMR Rocket), high dry matter annual Rye Grass (Makhan Grass) and a perennial Alfalfa (Delight). The new generation fodder crops are characterised by high protein, high palatability with more digestibility and high yield. Each of the products has its own unique features focused on improving milk yield and productivity.

The benefit of the highly nutritive forages is reducing dairy farms dependency on feeding animals with a concentrated mix of grains and dry meals. Consequently, it reduces the cost of milk production and increases profit of dairy farms.

The highly nutritive forages are focused on animals’ nutritional values but in some geographies the yield of the crop is more important.
Advanta Seeds launched global proprietary technology IMI Tolerant sorghum under igrowth® brand. The igrowth® was developed through mutagenesis methods and provides tolerance to herbicides of the Imidazoline family. This technology allows farmers to apply herbicides at the recommended dose and not damage the crop. The igrowth® hybrids genetics prevent death or irreversible damage to the crop while herbicides are applied. Having secured crop and better yield gives farmers peace of mind and secures the feed for the animals.

Another important innovation in forages that Advanta Seeds is focused on are hybrids with high drought tolerance. There are very few crops that have high drought tolerance and are suitable for animal feed. In many geographies which experience increased surface temperatures, the traditionally used corn for animal fails under drought conditions. Thus, it is important to increase production of crops that are suitable for animal feed and have high drought tolerance.

One of the success factors of Advanta Seeds strong portfolio with drought tolerant forages is availability of drought tolerant female genetics whereas other companies rely on tolerance coming from a male line. This is an important factor for production and control, and demonstrates the depth of the genetic diversity in the germplasm. It allows to use multiple sources of tolerance to stack the different genes together and provide the sorghum grower with a high and durable level of tolerance.
To meet the market needs currently Advanta Seeds is working on various molecular and high-throughput phenotyping technologies that will allow to select the very best of lines in the breeding populations. This will allow to maximize dual purpose, gain yield and bio-mass yield for high quality silage making. The changing environment and emerging technologies also inspired Advanta Seeds to start R&D programs for nitrogen use efficiency, cold tolerance and salt tolerance hybrids.

Forage based “Balanced Diet”

Currently many dairy farmers endure high feeding and maintain costs which impacting their profitability. Advanta Seeds collaborates with local farmers to design feeding plans that meets the nutritional animal needs and reduces feeding cost. The feeding plan is known as a “Balanced Diet” which includes highly nutritive forages and Cereal fibre, Grain and Legumes. The Balanced Diet helps animals to get required energy and protein for the body to optimise the diet conversion while reducing the feeding costs and increasing the farms profitability.

Opportunities in emerging and expanding markets

New generation forages are the new great opportunity especially in markets where the forage demand is high. The biggest challenge for the forage market is the market fragmentation, diversity of crops and farmers’ preferences.

Importance of education in forage production and conservation

To increase the animal feed production in a sustainable way Advanta Seeds introduced a program to train and educate farmers on forage production and conservation. This initiative includes field visits, farmer seminars and training on agronomy and latest technology in production and conservation of forages. The Advanta Seeds program includes preservation of excessive silage, sorghum and corn silage production, hay preservation and enriched-dry fodder pellets for crop residues and legumes.

Investing in new generation forages

Advanta Seeds is deploying resources in various countries to develop forages suitable for local needs and testing available commercial hybrids for fast track solutions. Developing new forage crops aims to improve the animal feed production and reduce farmers cost from large dairy farms to small households where the new generation forages can make a huge difference.


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