Hay
Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticated animals such as rabbits and guinea pigs. Pigs can eat hay, but do not digest it as efficiently as herbivores do. Hay can be used as animal fodder when or where there is not enough pasture or rangeland on which to graze an animal, when grazing is not feasible due to weather (such as during the winter), or when lush pasture by itself would be too rich for the health of the animal. It is also fed when an animal is unable to access pasture—for example, when the animal is being kept in a stable or barn. Composition Commonly used plants for hay include mixtures of grasses such as ryegrass (''Lolium'' species), timothy, brome, fescue, Bermuda grass, orchard grass, and other species, depending on region. Hay may also include legumes, s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alfalfa
Alfalfa () (''Medicago sativa''), also called lucerne, is a perennial flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. It is cultivated as an important forage crop in many countries around the world. It is used for grazing, hay, and silage, as well as a green manure and cover crop. The name alfalfa is used in North America. The name lucerne is the more commonly used name in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. The plant superficially resembles clover (a cousin in the same family), especially while young, when trifoliate leaves comprising round leaflets predominate. Later in maturity, leaflets are elongated. It has clusters of small purple flowers followed by fruits spiralled in 2 to 3 turns containing 10–20 seeds. Alfalfa is native to warmer temperate climates. It has been cultivated as livestock fodder since at least the era of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Etymology The word ''alfalfa'' is a Spanish modification of the Arabic word ''a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature, '' Eohippus'', into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began domesticating horses around 4000 BCE, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BCE. Horses in the subspecies ''caballus'' are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. These feral populations are not true wild horses, as this term is used to describe horses that have never been domesticated. There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior. Horses are adapted to run, allowing them to quickly escape predators ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Domestic Rabbit
A domestic or domesticated rabbit (''Oryctolagus cuniculus domesticus'')—more commonly known as a pet rabbit, bunny, bun, or bunny rabbit—is a subspecies of European rabbit, a member of the lagomorph family. A male rabbit is known as a ''buck,'' a female is a ''doe,'' and a young rabbit is a ''kit'', or ''kitten''. Rabbits were first used for their food and fur by the Romans, and have been kept as pets in Western nations since the 19th century. Rabbits can be housed in exercise pens, but free roaming without any boundaries in a rabbit-proofed space has become popularized on social media in recent years. Beginning in the 1980s, the idea of the domestic rabbit as a house companion, a so-called ''house rabbit'' similar to a house cat, was promoted. Rabbits can be litter box-trained and taught to come when called, but they require exercise and can damage a house that has not been "rabbit proofed" based on their innate need to chew. Accidental interactions between pet rab ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Guinea Pig
The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig (''Cavia porcellus''), also known as the cavy or domestic cavy (), is a species of rodent belonging to the genus '' Cavia'' in the family Caviidae. Breeders tend to use the word ''cavy'' to describe the animal, while in scientific and laboratory contexts, it is far more commonly referred to by the common name ''guinea pig''. Despite their common name, guinea pigs are not native to Guinea, nor are they closely related biologically to pigs, and the origin of the name is still unclear. They originated in the Andes of South America. Studies based on biochemistry and hybridization suggest they are domesticated animals that do not exist naturally in the wild, descendants of a closely related cavy species such as '' C. tschudii''. They were originally domesticated as livestock for a source of meat, and are still consumed in some parts of the world. In Western society, the guinea pig has enjoyed widespread popularity as a pet since its i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Straw
Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has a number of different uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder, thatching and basket making. Straw is usually gathered and stored in a straw bale, which is a bale, or bundle, of straw tightly bound with twine, wire, or string. Straw bales may be square, rectangular, or round, and can be very large, depending on the type of baler used. Uses Current and historic uses of straw include: * Animal feed **Straw may be fed as part of the roughage component of the diet to cattle or horses that are on a near maintenance level of energy requirement. It has a low digestible energy and nutrient content (as opposed to hay, which is much more nutritious). The heat generated when microorganisms in a herbivore's gut digest straw can be usefu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Trifolium Pratense
''Trifolium pratense'', the red clover, is a herbaceous species of flowering plant in the bean family Fabaceae, native to Europe, Western Asia, and northwest Africa, but planted and naturalized in many other regions. Description Red clover is a herbaceous, short-lived perennial plant, variable in size, growing to tall. It has a deep taproot which makes it tolerant to drought and gives it a good soil structuring effect. The leaves are alternate, trifoliate (with three leaflets), each leaflet long and broad, green with a characteristic pale crescent in the outer half of the leaf; the petiole is long, with two basal stipules that are abruptly narrowed to a bristle-like point. The flowers are dark pink with a paler base, long, produced in a dense inflorescence, and are mostly visited by bumblebees. Distribution The red clover is native to Europe, Western Asia, and northwest Africa, but it has been naturalized in other continents, like North and South America. Specifi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Clover
Clover or trefoil are common names for plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (from Latin ''tres'' 'three' + ''folium'' 'leaf'), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume or pea family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution with highest diversity in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, but many species also occur in South America and Africa, including at high altitudes on mountains in the tropics. They are small annual, biennial, or short-lived perennial herbaceous plants, typically growing up to 30 cm tall. The leaves are trifoliate (rarely quatrefoiled; see four-leaf clover), monofoil, bifoil, cinquefoil, hexafoil, septfoil, etcetera, with stipules adnate to the leaf-stalk, and heads or dense spikes of small red, purple, white, or yellow flowers; the small, few-seeded pods are enclosed in the calyx. Other closely related genera often called clovers include '' Melilotus'' (sweet clover) and ''Medicago'' ( alfalfa or Calvar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Trifolium Repens
''Trifolium repens'', the white clover, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the bean family Fabaceae (otherwise known as Leguminosae). It is native to Europe, including the British Isles,Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Warburg., E.F. 1968. ''Excursion Flora of the British Isles''. Cambridge University Press. and central Asia and is one of the most widely cultivated types of clover. It has been widely introduced worldwide as a forage crop, and is now also common in most grassy areas ( lawns and gardens) of North America, Australia and New Zealand. The species includes varieties often classed as small, intermediate and large, according to height, which reflects petiole length. The term 'white clover' is applied to the species in general, 'Dutch clover' is often applied to intermediate varieties (but sometimes to smaller varieties), and 'ladino clover' is applied to large varieties. Name The genus name, '' Trifolium'', derives from the Latin ', "three", and ', "leaf", so cal ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Barn
A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen G. Noble, ''Traditional Buildings: A Global Survey of Structural Forms and Cultural Functions'' (New York: Tauris, 2007), 30. As a result, the term barn is often qualified e.g. tobacco barn, dairy barn, cow house, sheep barn, potato barn. In the British Isles, the term barn is restricted mainly to storage structures for unthreshed cereals and fodder, the terms byre or shippon being applied to cow shelters, whereas horses are kept in buildings known as stables. In mainland Europe, however, barns were often part of integrated structures known as byre-dwellings (or housebarns in US literature). In addition, barns may be used for equipment storage, as a covered workplace, and for activities such as threshing. Etymology The word ''barn'' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Timothy-grass
Timothy (''Phleum pratense'') is an abundant perennial grass native to most of Europe except for the Mediterranean region. It is also known as timothy-grass, meadow cat's-tail or common cat's tail. It is a member of the genus '' Phleum'', consisting of about 15 species of annual and perennial grasses. It is probably named after Timothy Hanson, an American farmer and agriculturalist said to have introduced it from New England to the southern states in the early 18th century. Upon his recommendation it became a major source of hay and cattle fodder to British farmers in the mid-18th century. Timothy can be confused with meadow foxtail (''Alopecurus pratensis'') or purple-stem cat's-tail (''Phleum phleoides''). Description Timothy grows to tall, with leaves up to long and broad. The leaves are hairless, rolled rather than folded, and the lower sheaths turn dark brown. It has no stolons or rhizomes, and no auricles. The flowerhead is long and broad, with densely pac ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Orchard Grass
''Dactylis'' is a genus of Eurasian and North African plants in the bluegrass subfamily within the grass family. ''Dactylis'' is native to North Africa, they are found throughout the world, and are an invasive species. They are known in English as cock's-foot or cocksfoot grasses, also sometimes as orchard grasses. Taxonomy The genus has been treated as containing only a single species '' Dactylis glomerata'' by many authors, treating variation in the genus at only subspecific rank within ''D. glomerata'',Flora Europaea''Dactylis glomerata''Flora of China Town''Dactylis''/ref> but more recently, there has been a trend to accept two species,Germplasm Resources Information NetworkSpecies Records of ''Dactylis'' while some authors accept even more species in the genus, particularly island endemic species in Macaronesia.Schönfelder, P., & Ludwig, D. (1996). Dactylis metlesicsii (Poaceae), eine neue Art der Gebirgsvegetation von Tenerife, Kanarische Inseln. ''Willdenowia'' 26 (1� ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cynodon
''Cynodon'' is a genus of plants in the grass family. It is native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Old World, as well as being cultivated and naturalized in the New World and on many oceanic islands. The genus name comes from Greek words meaning "dog-tooth". The genus as a whole as well as its species are commonly known as Bermuda grass or dog's tooth grass. ; Species * '' Cynodon aethiopicus'' - Africa; introduced in South Africa, Queensland, Hawaii, Texas * '' Cynodon barberi'' - India, Sri Lanka * '' Cynodon coursii'' - Madagascar * '' Cynodon dactylon'' - Old World; introduced in New World and on various islands * '' Cynodon incompletus'' - southern Africa; introduced in Australia, Argentina * '' Cynodon × magennisii'' - Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga; introduced in Texas, Alabama * ''Cynodon nlemfuensis'' - Africa from Ethiopia to Zimbabwe; introduced in South Africa, West Africa, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, Texas, Florida, Mesoamerica, northern South America ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |