- Super Napier is a high yielding green fodder.
- Super Napier can yield 180 to 200 Tonnes per acre per year
- Its leaf length is 6 – 8 cm broad.
- They grow up to a high height 12 feet to 15 feet
- Super Napier has high crisp leaves.
- They have high leaf stem rate
- Super Napier can be harvested eight times a year
- The yield is made in a short period of time.
- Roots around the nodes can quickly grow.
How to plant Super Napier:
- The soil should be well pulverized with the use of a rotavator
- The furrows are made 3 feet’s apart.
- The cuttings are planted flat in the furrows, 2 feet’s apart, and covered with soil one to two inches thick.
- 10,000 to 12,000 stems can be planted per acre
- After planting, irrigate to enhance germination.
- Always irrigate when necessary
How to irrigate Super Napier plants:
- Watering should be done on the third day.
- Irrigation should be done every 7 days depending on type of the soil
- Wastewater from the cattle shed can also be used for irrigation and is best source of manure.
- Super Napier grows well in all types of water.
Super Napier – 45 days after planting
- Super Napier grass will become robust, tufted and has a vigorous root system, developing from nodes of its creeping stolon’s.
- Super Napier by this time would have grown up to 4 m to 7 m in height.
- They will form dense thick clumps, up to 1 m across.
- The leaves will be flat, linear, and hairy at the base, 100 cm to 120 cm long, 1 cm to 5 cm wide and bluish-green in color.
Super Napier – 90 days after planting
- Normally first harvest can be done after 90 days of planting and can be fed to cows and buffaloes
- It has other uses aside from fresh feed for farm animals.
- If there is excess harvest because there are not enough animals to eat the newly cut grass, the same could be shredded and made into silage.
- The shredded leaves and stalks could also be made into organic fertilizer by mixing the same with cattle manure.
- When shredded into fine particles, the same could be fed to vegetable-eating fish like tilapia and Pangasius.
Super Napier grass for Dairy Farms in Tamil Nadu
Leave a Reply