Zambia Dairy - Tips for Growing Napier Grass

This video explains the process of growing Napier grass, which is a useful feed for dairy animals in Zambia.
For more information on this subject, see Fact Sheet F07 at zambiadairy.com.
Napier grass is a fast-growing, drought tolerant perennial grass that 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 30 centimetres wide and 15 centimetres deep.
Ensure 80 centimetres between rows and 50 centimetres between the plants in each row.
Only take cuttings from healthy, mature 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 cuttings 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 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 90 centimetres – 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 the Napier at least five centimetres 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 into each basin – that’s equivalent to about four tablespoons.
Afterwards, at the start of each rain season, topdress the plants with urea and water, to aid absorption into the soil, or 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.
About 30 kilograms per day of fresh Napier grass provides sufficient nutrients for a 400-kilogram dairy cow during the early dry season.