Forage is the basis of developing livestock and poultry production, especially herbivorous livestock production.

Pasture not only contains all kinds of nutrients necessary for livestock, but also contains crude fiber which is particularly important for maintaining the health of ruminants, which cannot be replaced by cereals and other feeds. High-quality forage can completely meet the nutritional needs of ordinary livestock. If it is not in the production or fattening period, it is generally not necessary to supplement concentrate.

Many experiments show that if the forage quality is too low, no matter how much concentrate is added, the milk yield of cattle will decrease; But concentrate accounts for 20% of the diet. Replacing low-quality grasses such as wheat straw and rice straw with high-quality alfalfa hay before flowering can increase the daily milk yield from 23.5 kg to 36.2 kg. For fattening cattle and sheep, the effect of improving hay quality and increasing livestock weight is remarkable under the condition of constant concentrate-feed ratio. Pasture is the cheapest source of feed for livestock. Compared with food crops, the cost of raising livestock with pasture is much lower.

Ryegrass is a high-quality forage for raising pigs, geese, rabbits, sheep and other livestock and poultry. Planting grass and raising livestock is an excellent mode of combining planting and raising, and a good way to obtain higher economic benefits. Ryegrass is the best forage variety in winter, which has the advantages of good adaptability, easy planting, high yield, good nutrition and good palatability.