Season, Forage Resource for Improved Ruminant Nutrition in Nigeria

Ruminants are mainly traditionally managed in Nigeria and inadequate feed availability and poor quality are major constraints to optimal productivity of the animals. The natural pasture that supplies the bulk of the feed for ruminants is very erratic in biomass yield and nutritive quality for most of the year and cannot sustain the animals in growth and production year-round. The need to increase animal production to match up with the increasing demand of the fast growing human population necessitates finding ways of improving ruminants feed. The use of improved and purposely managed pastures therefore becomes imperative, and the role of qualitative, productive and well adapted forage legumes cannot be overemphasized. Even though various legume species have played significant roles in pasture development in Nigeria many of them have adaptation requirements that restrict them to different ecological zones of the country thereby limiting the number of species that are actually available for use in each locality. Some of the limited numbers have also been reported in recent times to have become susceptible to some fungal diseases which necessitates seeking other species that could complement of replace the existing species. Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.), a Mediterranean annual legum