Feed-grain Crops

plants yielding grain that is used primarily as feed for farm animals and poultry. Among the cereals usually considered to be feed-grain crops are corn, barley, oats, sorghum, and green foxtail millet, and among the legumes, peas, lupine, vetch, grass peavine, and fodder beans. There is no clear line between feed-grain crops and food grains because feed grains may, under certain conditions, become food for humans and vice versa. The grain of feed crops is a concentrated feed rich in carbohydrates (up to 75 percent), digestible protein (8-30 percent), vitamin E and B-complex vitamins. One kilogram of feed grain is equivalent to 1-1.4 fodder units.

Feed-grain crops are cultivated in all countries where live-stock is raised. The total area planted to feed grains (corn, barley, and oats) in the world is 220.9 million hectares (ha) and the gross grain harvest is 448 million tons (1970). With the development of intensive livestock raising, the production of feed grain increases each year. Especially large areas are planted to feed grains in the United States (corn, barley, and oats) and France (barley), which are also major feed grain exporters. In the USSR in 1970, 33.9 million ha were sown to basic feed-grain crops (barley, oats, and corn) and the gross harvest was 61.6 million tons. Under the ninth five-year plan (1971-75) the production of feed-grain crops is expected to increase significantly.