ABSTRACT
Herbivore animals have preferred to graze certain grasses, shrubs, and leaves of trees since prehistoric times. Humans selected, domesticated, cultivated, and harvested grains from the cereals, legumes, oilseed, and other crops for their use and simultaneously tamed the animals, including ruminant livestock, by feeding them vegetative parts also known as straw (roughages). Furthermore, domesticated animals graze on wastelands, on fallows, under trees and groves, and in pastures. Pasture crops include alfalfa, clover, birdsfoot trefoil, wheatgrass, wildrye grasses, bermudagrass, brachiaria, and ryegrass, as well as other minor crops such as vetches (Vicia spp.) and brassicas. The classic example of a cultivated crop is alfalfa, a forage legume that has been cultivated since 1,300 b.c. Its importance to feeding horses is described in Greek literature between 440 and 322 b.c. (Chapter 2). With the establishment of human civilization, animals started to be conned by the erection of barriers (stones, hedges) followed by fencing. Humans started to raise crops, tend to animals, and cultivate pastures-a triangular symbiotic relationship since the beginning of human civilization. Freshly cut or uncut grasses, legumes, and other crops were converted into hay or silage
CONTENTS
1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................1 1.2 Importance of Forage Crops .......................................................................................................2 1.3 Establishment of International and National Programs ..............................................................3 1.4 Gene Pools of Forage Crops ........................................................................................................3
