REHOBOTH ORGANIC FARMS

• Red Napier is a multi-cut hybrid green fodder grass that can be used for animals like Cow, Buffalo, Goat, Sheep, Pig, Poultry.
• They are rich source of starch, protein and edible oil.
• Red Napier produces good quality herbaceous fodder and is highly palatable.
• Providing sufficient quantities of fodder to the milch animals will increase of milk production of the animals

How to plant Red Napier 

• Red Napier grows best on alluvial, red soils and also grows well on well drained black soils.
• It does not thrive well on heavy soils, saline and alkali soils.
• Sowing time will be best during July to February
• Seed should be sown in lines spaced at 1 feet and width at 2 feet.
• Select good quality Red Napier stems with 2 nodes.
• Plant the stems in the furrows at 45% slope with one node below the soil and one node above the soil
• After planting the stems irrigate the soil thoroughly

Irrigation for Red Napier:

• Irrigate immediately after sowing and give life irrigation on the third day and thereafter twice a week.
• Red Napier is comparatively more to sensitive to excess moist and stress.
• It requires irrigation every alternative days during summer season
• Irrigation will not be required during rainy season.

How to fertilize Red Napier:

• Red Napier responds well to farmyard manure like cow dung manure and poultry manure
• Apply 2 Tonnes farmyard manure per acre before planting Red Napier stems
• In the absence of farmyard manure, it requires 100 kg bio fertilizer per acre.
• Manure / Bio fertilizer should also be applied after 25-30 days of planting the stems

Red Napier after 30 days of planting:

• After 30 days more weeds would have grown in the farm along the Red Napier stems.
• Weeding has to be done as weeds rob the nutrients that the soil received from the fertilizer applied.
• Hence weeding has to be done in the farm using hand labor or through the mechanized tools
• If necessary, second spell of weeding can be done after 45 days
• After completing the weeding work, Red Napier grass will grow very fast and densely.

Red Napier – 75 days after planting

• After 75 days Red Napier would have grown by 6 to 8 feet.
• Red Napier at this stage can be harvested and can be fed to chickens, ducks, horses and rabbits
• Red Napier is very palatable because the stalks are tender
• Then succeeding harvests are every 60 to 70 days.
• The stalks are cut close to the ground, and in no time, new shoots or ratoon will come out.

How to harvest Red Napier

• Red Napier after 90 days would have grown by 10 feet to 12 feet.
• Red Napier at this stage can be harvested and can be fed to cows, buffalo and horses
• Harvested Red Napier can be shredded using Chaff cutter and can be fed to cattle’s
• When shredded into fine particles, the same could be fed to vegetable-eating fish like tilapia and Pangasius.